Massive star VY Canis Majoris - polarized light

Esahubble_opo0703c_1024

esahubble_opo0703c January 8th, 2007

Credit: NASA/ESA and R. Humphreys (University of Minnesota)

VY Canis Majoris is one of the largest known stars in the Universe in respect of size. The diameter of this red hypergiant is about 1400 times larger than the Sun. Because of its size it is devouring itselve, consuming its fuel at fantastic rates. This star releases as much energy in the amount of seconds as our Sun does in an entire year. Because red hypergiants are so active, their lifetimes are measured only in millions of years which is a blink of an eye compared to the lifetime of the Sun, which is measured in billions of years. At the end of their lifes they explode in hypernovas; these outbursts contain more energy than 100 supernovae.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo0703c/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
VY Canis Majoris
Subject - Local Universe
Star > Evolutionary Stage > Red Supergiant
Esahubble_opo0703c_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 7h 22m 58.3s
DEC = -25° 46’ 3.2”
Orientation
North is 40.8° CCW
Field of View
0.2 x 0.2 arcminutes
Constellation
Canis Major

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Magenta Hubble (ACS) Optical (POL120V) 550.0 nm
Yellow Hubble (ACS) Optical (POL60V) 550.0 nm
Cyan Hubble (ACS) Optical (POL0V) 550.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Magenta
Yellow
Cyan
Esahubble_opo0703c_1280
×
ID
opo0703c
Subject Category
C.3.1.5  
Subject Name
VY Canis Majoris
Credits
NASA/ESA and R. Humphreys (University of Minnesota)
Release Date
2007-01-08T18:20:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo0703c/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Distance in light years from: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008PASJ...60.1007C
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
ACS, ACS, ACS
Color Assignment
Magenta, Yellow, Cyan
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
POL120V, POL60V, POL0V
Central Wavelength
550, 550, 550
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
110.743018602, -25.7675524593
Reference Dimension
790.0, 790.0
Reference Pixel
395.0, 395.0
Scale
-4.20473051211e-06, 4.20473051211e-06
Rotation
40.779999999999966
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
opo0703c
Metadata Date
2006-12-08T14:46:58-05:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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