Largest star we can see

[w1z4rd]

http://www.techdo.com/images/largest-know-star.htm

 

[semiautomatix]

Fook me... how far would planets have to orbit from that puppy?

 

[w1z4rd]

Fook me... how far would planets have to orbit from that puppy?

Good question actually....

 

[Highflyer_GP]

Yeah Canis Majoris is huge.

To illustrate, if our Sun was replaced with VY Canis Majoris, its surface would extend to the orbit of Saturn. Assuming the upper size limit of 2100 solar radii, light would take more than 8 hours to travel around the star's circumference.

Similarly, if a human could walk on the surface of Canis Majoris – assuming a speed of 5 km/h (3 mph) for 8 hours a day – the person would have to walk for 650,000 years to circle the star (compared with 2 years 11 months to complete the same task on the Earth, and 310 years 7 months on the Sun).

 

[web]

and us humans think we are something special.

 

[The_Unbeliever]

It's scary... to know our Sun is almost an invisible speck of dust against this big one...

... we need a huge earth like that so we can live in peace while others nuke themselves on the other side

 

[Highflyer_GP]

... we need a huge earth like that so we can live in peace while others nuke themselves on the other side

True

Unfortunately the gravity would be so huge that we would hardly be able to move on it

 

[The_Unbeliever]

Unfortunately the gravity would be so huge that we would hardly be able to move on it

 

[Surv0]

thats insane

 

[mercurial]

It's scary... to know our Sun is almost an invisible speck of dust against this big one...

... we need a huge earth like that so we can live in peace while others nuke themselves on the other side

now imagine how large the entire universe is.

True

Unfortunately the gravity would be so huge that we would hardly be able to move on it

most of our other planets have really crap, for the lack of a better word, features. on mercury for example, that damn planet is weird. half of the year it is exposed to the sun and temperatures are in the hundreds of degrees, at the same time, the other half's temperature is hundreds below zero. damn planet is so small, that is doesn't even have a moon. neither does it have an atmosphere, which means you wouldn't be able to hear anything! we wouldn't be able to have a normal conversation. venus again, is hell!!! literally.

 

[LoneGunman]

to get an idea of how irrelevant Earth is, in the cosmic scale of things,
have a look at this comparison chart - showing relative sizes of various planets
and stars, to that of the Earth..
http://www.rense.com/general72/size.htm

And for a direct comparison of the planets in our local system, to Earth, look at
Planet Size Comparison: http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/interactives/messenger/psc/PlanetSize.html

 

[rvanwyk]

also, they estiamte that their is about 100billion stars in the milky way and some of the does have planets. they also estimate that there is about 100billion galaxies out there. some smaller (dwarf) galaxies and some huge ones like andromeda which is fairly close and moving towards the milky way.

 

[fcain]

I spoke with the researcher and she said that the largest star possible is 2,600 times the size of the Sun. At 2,100 times the size of the Sun, VY Canis Majoris is pretty close.

 

[Just_Ice]

to get an idea of how irrelevant Earth is, in the cosmic scale of things,
have a look at this comparison chart - showing relative sizes of various planets
and stars, to that of the Earth..
http://www.rense.com/general72/size.htm

And for a direct comparison of the planets in our local system, to Earth, look at
Planet Size Comparison: http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/interactives/messenger/psc/PlanetSize.html

DAmn! One whole pixel!!!

 

[gregmcc]

Impressive. Show were pretty insignificant. Any bigger and I reckon it would collapse on its own weight

 

[Balstrome]

Impressive. Show were pretty insignificant. Any bigger and I reckon it would collapse on its own weight

Fair enough, so lets say throw a couple dozen billion mega tonnes of matter at it, and start the collaspe on itself. Anyone have any ideas of what time frame the collapse will last, from start to zero ?

 

[gregmcc]

I'm afraid my astrophysics is a little rusty. We need Steven Hawking here

 

[w1z4rd]

Fair enough, so lets say throw a couple dozen billion mega tonnes of matter at it, and start the collaspe on itself. Anyone have any ideas of what time frame the collapse will last, from start to zero ?

I couple of billion "mega" tonnes (is mega tonnes a technical term I have not learnt about?) of matter would be like a goose farting into a huricane with one of these super massive stars.