The night sky is painted with so many stars of so many different sizes. There are some that stand out in the dark sky because of their size compared to others, while others look like mere dots. What is their actual size?
How big are stars? This article will delve into details about stars and their sizes to answer your question. Let’s begin!
How Big Are the Stars?
Stars of various sizes. Some stars are the size of our cities, and some are big enough to fit at least half of our solar system into them.
The Sun is also a star. It is nearly 864,000 miles wide. But it is not the biggest star. There are stars bigger than our Sun. These stars are so big that they can fit several Suns inside them.
Some stars, like neutron stars, are small in volume but pack the mass of two Suns. They can have a diameter of merely 12.4 to 24.8 miles. In comparison to neutron stars, dwarf stars are bigger. Their size is nearly the size of our planet.
This example will help you comprehend how big some stars are. If you flew around some of the biggest stars, it would take you millions of years to finish one revolution. That is right, millions of years!
Star Sizes
Since there are so many different types of stars, let’s find out how they vary in size. Among supergiant stars, the largest of them can be over 1,500 times larger than our Sun, while the smallest is 100 times larger.
In terms of numerical value, it makes the largest of supergiant stars over 1,243 million miles wide. Supergiant stars attain this range of width due to expansion. For example, in the Orion constellation, the red giant Betelgeuse is a thousand times wider than our Sun. However, it only packs about 15 times its mass.
On the other hand, dwarf stars fall into the smaller category of stars. From the smallest to the largest, we have white dwarf stars, brown dwarf stars, red dwarf stars, and yellow dwarf stars. While the white dwarf stars can be similarly sized to Earth, the yellow dwarf stars match the size of our Sun.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Is the Biggest Star Known to Us?
The UY Scuti is the biggest star known to us in the universe. It has a radius that is about 1,700 times that of the Sun. To make it more clear, you could fit around five billion Suns inside the UY Scuti-sized sphere!
Which Is The Smallest Star Known to Us?
Located around 600 light-years away within the Milky Way is a star cataloged as EBLM J0555-57Ab. This star is the smallest ever to be recorded. It is similar in size to Saturn.
The Bottom Line
Stars are not the tiny sparkling dots you see in the night sky. They are big enough to fit entire cities and entire planets into them. Some are even big enough to fit multiple Suns into them! In comparison, the Sun is considered a medium-sized star.
