VY Canis Majoris

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VY Canis Majoris (VY CMa) is a red hypergiant or red supergiant star located in the constellation Canis Major. It is one of the largest and most luminous stars known in the Milky Way galaxy.The distance to VY Canis Majoris has been a subject of study and revision. Early estimates placed it around 4,800-4,900 light-years from Earth. However, more recent high-precision measurements using Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) of masers suggest a closer distance of approximately 1,200 parsecs, or about 3,900 light-years.The mass of VY CMa is estimated to be between 17 and 40 times the mass of our Sun (M☉). Most recent sources converge on a value around 17 ± 8 M☉, though some earlier studies suggested a higher initial mass of 30-40 M☉ during its main-sequence phase.The size of VY Canis Majoris is its most famous and debated characteristic. It is renowned for its enormous radius. Estimates vary significantly due to challenges in defining the "surface" of such a diffuse, mass-losing star and accounting for its circumstellar envelope. Reported radii range from about 600 solar radii (R☉) to over 2,000 R☉. A frequently cited and more recent measurement places its radius at approximately 1,420 ± 120 R☉. If placed at the center of our Solar System, its photosphere would extend beyond the orbit of Jupiter, nearing or even surpassing the orbit of Saturn.It is an extremely luminous star, with estimates ranging from 237,000 to over 450,000 times the luminosity of the Sun (L☉).Its effective surface temperature is relatively cool, around 3,000 to 3,490 Kelvin.It is classified as a semiregular variable star (type SRc or Lc), with its visual magnitude varying between 6.5 and 9.6 over a period of roughly 956 to 2,200 days.Unlike many hypergiants, VY CMa is a single star without a companion. It is surrounded by a complex, asymmetric nebula formed by its intense and episodic mass loss.

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