You are here:
Astronomy/astronomy
Advertisement
Question
is the sun the biggest star?
No Matthew,
There are many larger stars.
Stars come in 3 categries of size.
1 - sunlike
2 - red giants
3 blue giants.
Betelguese (constellation Orion), Vega, Antares (constellation scorpio), Arcturus are examples of red giant stars.
Betelguese is 14 solar masses and 630 million miles in dia meter approximately.
Rigel (constellation Orion) is a blue giant.
has a radius of @ 70 million miles! and 17 times more massive than the sun.
references for you..
Rigel:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigel
Betelguese:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betelgeuse
use the star map on these site to see both rigel and betelguese thru a small binocular!
hope that suffices.
Jayen
Related Articles
Answers by Expert:
Jayendra Upadhye
Expertise
1 - General questions on most astronomy topics such as:- Solar system, Cosmology, Black holes, Quasars, Dark matter etc. 2 - General questions about the geologies of planets. 3 - General questions about Orbits and laws governing them. 4 - General questions about rockets / spaceships 5 - General questions about stellar interiors and supernovas.
Experience
I was an askme.com expert rated no#1 for quite some time - and was top ten there by the time it closed - in Astronomy and general science categories.
Education/Credentials
Bachelor of Engg. (Electrical engg), Maharaja Sayajirao university of Baroda, Gujarat, India.
Awards and Honors
None to write about except the askme rating if it is any worth!
©2012 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.