Venice is definitely a city for one's bucket list

Yes, the largest known star, UY Scuti, is indeed so massive that it is larger than the orbit of Saturn around the Sun. To put it in perspective, UY Scuti is an ultra-giant star, classified as a red supergiant.

Size of UY Scuti

• UY Scuti has an estimated radius around 1,700 times that of the Sun. If it were placed at the center of our solar system, its outer edges would extend beyond the orbit of Jupiter, and it might even engulf the orbit of Saturn.
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Comparison with Saturn's Orbit

• The average distance between Saturn and the Sun is about 1.4 billion kilometers (or 9.5 AU), where 1 AU is the average distance from Earth to the Sun (about 150 million kilometers). The size of UY Scuti's radius extends much farther than this distance, making the star far larger than Saturn's orbit.

UY Scuti's Characteristics

• Type: UY Scuti is a red supergiant, one of the largest types of stars in terms of volume, though not necessarily in mass. It is in a late stage of stellar evolution.

• Location: UY Scuti is located in the constellation Scutum, about 9,500 light-years away from Earth.
• Mass: Despite its enormous size, UY Scuti has only about 30 times the mass of the Sun, which is relatively low for a star of its size. Most of its size comes from its expanded outer layers.

Why So Big?

• Red supergiants like UY Scuti have expanded greatly as they approach the end of their lifecycles. These stars burn their fuel at an accelerated rate, leading to their outer layers swelling up to massive sizes. Eventually, they may shed their outer layers and become white dwarfs, neutron stars, or explode as supernovae.

Other Large Stars

While UY Scuti holds the title for the largest known star, there are other enormous stars like VY Canis Majoris and Vega that have also been observed to reach incredible sizes, though they are generally smaller than UY Scuti. The measurement of stellar sizes can vary depending on methods and estimates, as many stars, particularly red supergiants, have inconsistent or fluctuating outer boundaries.

In summary, UY Scuti is one of the most colossal stars discovered, with a size that far exceeds the orbit of Saturn, highlighting the immense scale and diversity of stars in our universe.