The largest known planets. For everyone and about everything

August 25, 2014

Amazing sight

Just a year ago, scientists using ALMA telescopes saw a stunning spectacle - the creation of a huge planet in the Milky Way galaxy, which was given the title of the largest planet in the Galaxy.

Astronomers from Cardiff University, using the powerful ALMA telescope, were lucky enough to observe the birth process of the largest star in the Milky Way Galaxy. The mass of the protostellar cloud formed 500 times larger in diameter than the Sun, and its luminosity became several orders of magnitude higher.

Protostellar cloud

Previously, scientists saw the formation of a protostellar cloud of gases and dust ten thousand light years from Earth. It was compressed under the influence of gravity towards its own center. This was the process of creating a new star, which became the largest in our galaxy.

The mass of the “newborn” is no less than 500 times greater than the mass of the Sun, and the luminosity that this large planet has in the Galaxy is several million times higher than the solar one. Scientists were lucky to observe this rare process and see it in great detail using the world's most powerful radio telescopes. Scientists conducting the study note that a huge cloud of gases and cosmic dust was pulled inward by gravity, and a young star was formed from long, thread-like cosmic substances.

The main specialist of this study from Cardiff University, Nicholas Pareto, told how, with the help of ALMA telescopes, scientists were able to examine the entire process of creating a star in the smallest details, which will now appear in astronomy textbooks for children around the world. Their mission was to monitor the birth giant star and they did it great. They observed the largest protostellar cloud in the entire Milky Way galaxy.

It might turn out to be a star

It was not by chance that astronomers directed the telescope to this part of the starry sky, since they guessed that it was in this area that the most favorable conditions to form huge stars. Although no one dreamed of seeing the creation of the largest star in the Galaxy. Scientists assumed that this protostellar cloud could produce a star that would be only a hundred times the mass of the Sun. Therefore, the result of the observations shocked and pleasantly surprised them.

Co-author of the study, a colleague of Nicholas Paretto from the University of Manchester, Gary Fuller, said that such giants are extremely rare in our galaxy, and seeing them at the moment of creation is incredibly problematic. Star formation occurs very quickly, and the planet does not remain young for long. So the scientist considers these studies more than successful.

Star formation

Another member of the research team, a representative of the University of Bordeaux, Ana Duarte-Cabral, said that during the formation of the star, matter was drawn unevenly towards the center. When carefully examining the protostellar cloud, scientists noticed dense gas-dust filaments that were attracted to the center the fastest.

Astronomers hope to continue to study this fascinating process of the formation of huge stars using the most powerful radio telescopes in the world and hope that they will be lucky enough to see the birth of more than one stellar giant.

Our Universe is truly huge. Pulsars, planets, stars, black holes and hundreds of other objects of incomprehensible size that are found in the Universe.

And today we would like to talk about the 10 biggest things. In this list, we've put together a collection of some of the largest objects in space, including nebulae, pulsars, galaxies, planets, stars, and more.

Without further delay, here is a list of the ten biggest things in the universe.

The largest planet in the Universe is TrES-4. It was discovered in 2006 and is located in the constellation Hercules. The planet, called TrES-4, orbits a star that is about 1,400 light-years away from planet Earth.

The planet TrES-4 itself is a ball that consists primarily of hydrogen. Its dimensions are 20 times greater than the size of the Earth. Researchers claim that the diameter of the discovered planet is almost 2 times (more precisely 1.7) larger than the diameter of Jupiter (this is the largest planet in the solar system). The temperature of TrES-4 is about 1260 degrees Celsius.

To date the most a big star is UY Scutum in the constellation Scutum at a distance of about 9,500 light-years from us. This is one of the most bright stars- it is 340 thousand times brighter than our Sun. Its diameter is 2.4 billion km, which is 1700 times larger than our star, with a weight of only 30 times the mass of the sun. It’s a pity that it is constantly losing mass; it is also called the fastest burning star. This may be why some scientists consider NML Cygnus the largest star, and others consider VY Canis Majoris.

Black holes are not measured in kilometers; the key indicator is their mass. The largest black hole is in the galaxy NGC 1277, which is not the largest. However, the hole in the galaxy NGC 1277 has 17 billion solar masses, which is 17% of the total mass of the galaxy. By comparison, our Milky Way's black hole has a mass of 0.1% of the galaxy's total mass.

7. Largest galaxy

The mega-monster among the currently known galaxies is IC1101. The distance to Earth is about 1 billion light years. Its diameter is about 6 million light years and holds about 100 trillion. stars; for comparison, the diameter of the Milky Way is 100 thousand light years. Compared with Milky Way IC 1101 is more than 50 times larger and 2000 times more massive.

Lyman-alpha blobs (drops, clouds) are amorphous bodies resembling amoebas or jellyfish in shape, consisting of a huge concentration of hydrogen. These blots are the initial and very short stage of the birth of a new galaxy. The largest of them, LAB-1, is more than 200 million light years wide and is located in the constellation Aquarius.

In the photo on the left, LAB-1 is recorded by instruments, on the right is an assumption of what it might look like up close.

A radio galaxy is a type of galaxy that has much greater radio emission compared to other galaxies.

Galaxies, as a rule, are located in clusters (clusters), which have a gravitational connection and expand with space and time. What is located in those places where there are no galaxies? Nothing! Regions of the Universe in which there is only “nothing” and is emptiness. The largest of them is the emptiness of Bootes. It is located in close proximity to the constellation Bootes and has a diameter of about 250 million light years. Distance to Earth approximately 1 billion light years

The largest supercluster of galaxies is the Shapley supercluster. Shapley is located in the constellation Centaurus and appears as a bright clump in the distribution of galaxies. This is the largest array of objects connected by gravity. Its length is 650 million light years.

The largest group of quasars (a quasar is a bright, energetic galaxy) is the Huge-LQG, also called U1.27. This structure consists of 73 quasars and has a diameter of 4 billion light years. However, the Great GRB Wall, which has a diameter of 10 billion light years, also claims primacy - the number of quasars is unknown. The presence of such large groups of quasars in the Universe contradicts Einstein’s Cosmological Principle, so their research is doubly interesting for scientists.

If astronomers have disputes about other objects in the Universe, then in this case almost all of them are unanimous in the opinion that the largest object in the Universe is the Cosmic Web. Endless clusters of galaxies surrounded by black matter form “nodes” and, with the help of gases, “threads”, which in appearance are very reminiscent of a three-dimensional web. Scientists believe that the cosmic web entangles the entire Universe and connects all objects in space.

5. VV Cephei A

The fifth position in our rating goes to the double star VV Cephei A, which has a radius of 1050–1900 solar. It is located in the constellation Cepheus. The star itself is eclipsed variable type Algola. Such objects are characterized by the presence of a cooler star passing in front of a hotter one. So some of the light from the hotter object is eclipsed, and the overall brightness of the pair is temporarily reduced. VV Cepheus is located 5 thousand light years away from us. The binary star consists of VV Cephei A (a red hypergiant with a radius of 1050 solar), as well as VV Cephei B, which is a blue B0 class main sequence star. It orbits VV Cephei A in an elliptical orbit.

The red hypergiant has a mass of approximately 25–100 solar masses. VV Cephei A is at least the seventh largest star known to science. It also holds an honorable second place, if we talk specifically about the Milky Way galaxy. In general, such luminaries (meaning hypergiants) are considered the most powerful, heaviest and brightest of the supergiants. They are also extremely rare. As for the “companion,” this star is ten times larger in diameter than our Sun, and its luminosity is 100,000 times higher.

VV Cepheus A and the Sun / ©Reddit

4. VY Canis Major

In fourth position in the ranking is VY Canis Majoris, which is located in the constellation Canis Major. Before us is a hypergiant. The distance from us to VY Canis Majoris is 3900 light years, so it is not a fact that humanity will ever be able to study this object in detail. If we talk about size, then the radius of the star is up to 1540 solar radii. There is another version, according to which we have before us an ordinary red supergiant, the radius of which does not exceed 600 solar. In general, the debate about the size continues, although there is no doubt that this is a real “monster”. To imagine its size, let's give an example: if you imagine aircraft, whose speed is 4.5 thousand km/h, then for a complete flyby of VY Canis Majoris it will take about 160 years.

With such monstrous dimensions, the mass of the star is only seventeen solar. This indicates the star's extremely low density. Scientists believe that its explosion could occur within the next 100 thousand years. This threatens nearby systems with catastrophe, but the Earth, according to scientists, will not be affected by this cataclysm.

VY Canis Majoris / ©Wikipedia

Here's another red supergiant, located in a nearby galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud. The latter is an SBm type dwarf galaxy and a satellite Milky Way. The star WOH G64 is extremely far from us - it is located 163 thousand light years from the Solar System. The lower limit of the star's radius is 1540 solar, the upper - 1730. WOH G64 is probably not the largest star of all, but it firmly ranks first in size when it comes to the luminaries of the Large Magellanic Cloud.

It has been suggested that the luminosity of WOH G64 is 500 thousand solar with a mass 40 times greater than that of our star. However, these data cannot be correlated with the low temperature of WOH G64, amounting to 3200 K. Subsequent observations showed that the luminosity of the star is reduced by the dust and gas located around it. Regardless, this star is huge: if placed at the center of our system, the surface of WOH G64 would reach the orbit of Saturn, the sixth planet from the Sun.

The stellar wind caused the giant star to lose up to a third of its total mass. Within a few thousand years it can turn into a supernova. However, this does not threaten the Earth in any way: the star is located at an incredibly large distance from our planet.

Giant torus around WOH G64 / ©ESO

UY Scuti is a bright red supergiant of spectral class M4Ia. It is located in the constellation Scutum. It is classified as semi-regular variable star, having an approximate pulsation period of 740 days. First of all, this luminary is interesting for its size, which allows it to gain a foothold in the second line of the ranking of the most big stars. If we draw an analogy with our Sun, then the volume of UY Scuti is approximately 5 billion times greater. In this case, the radius of the star can be 1900 solar.

Assuming no light pollution, UY Scuti can be viewed using a regular small telescope or even binoculars. It is a reddish star located 2° north of a type-A star visible to the naked eye? Scutum and 2 minutes of arc northwest of the Eagle Nebula. And although, when taking into account infrared radiation, the brightness of the star exceeds the brightness of the Sun by 340 thousand times, this object is “hiding” behind a huge layer of dust and gas around it. UY Scuti is also notable for being the fastest burning star. It loses an amount of mass equal to 5.8·10?5 M? /year.

UY Shield / ©Spacegid

1. NML Swan

And the well-deserved first place in our ranking rightfully goes to the red hypergiant NML Cygnus. It is located in the constellation Cygnus (the northern hemisphere of the starry sky). Its radius can reach 2775 solar! However, there is a lower limit - in this case the figure is approximately 1640 solar radii. The distance to the star is 5.3 thousand light years. The mass of the giant is 25–40 solar, and its luminosity exceeds that of our native star by 270 thousand times. NML Cygnus is distinguished by extremely large mass loss rates, which amount to 2×10×4 solar masses per year.

The star was discovered in 1965. Later it turned out that it contains silicon monoxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, carbon monosulfide, sulfur oxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide. However, the giant star continues to hide its secrets, and many questions will only be answered many years later.

Stellar association in which NML Cygnus is located / ©Wikimedia

Despite the level of development of civilization, humanity still knows very little about the world around us. However, some of what we know is surprising and unpredictable.

19% solar energy absorbed by the atmosphere, 47% falls to Earth, and 34% returns to space.

Duration of full solar eclipse does not exceed 7.5 minutes; total lunar eclipse - 104 minutes.
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HIPPARCHUS from Nicaea, ancient Greek astronomer.
The first star catalog was compiled by Hipparchus in 150 BC.
99 percent of the mass solar system concentrated on the Sun. In one minute, the Sun produces more energy than the entire Earth uses in a year. The light from the Sun that you see is 30 thousand years old.
The energy that we receive from the Sun was formed in its core 30,000 years ago - this is exactly the time it takes for photons (particles of light) to “break through” from the center of the star to its surface. After that, they reach Earth in just 8 minutes. The temperature of the solar core is more than 13 million degrees, and all the energy it produces must first pass through numerous layers to the surface in the form of light from other radiations.
The height of the Nix Olympic volcano, located on Mars, is more than 20 km. The atmosphere of Mars is 95% carbon dioxide. . Mountains on Mars reach a height of 20-25 kilometers.
2.5 km is the maximum thickness of the ice cover at the north pole of Mars.

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When we look at the farthest of visible stars, we are looking 4 billion years into the past. The light from it, traveling at a speed of almost 300,000 km/second, reaches us only after many years. Of the twelve brightest stars, Capella is the northernmost.

The distance to the nearest star (after the Sun) from us (Proxima Centauri) is 4.24 light years.

The duration of the first spacewalk (Leonov) was 12 seconds.

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Orbital station Mir was launched into orbit on February 20, 1986. During the entire existence of the Mir station, 135 people from 11 countries visited it. On board the Mir station there were more than 14 tons of various research equipment.

Asteroids 4147, 4148, 4149 and 4150 are named after the Beatles: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, respectively.
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Square solar surface the size of postage stamp shines with the same energy as 1,500,000 candles.
Astronomers believe that in the Universe, for every atom of matter there is approximately 400 liters of outer space.

Sunspots are one of the reasons for the special sound of the Stradivarius violin. Antonio Stradivari is an outstanding violin maker who lived in the 17th and 18th centuries. Scientists can't figure out why his violins sound special, but they have discovered that the wood that... he used is very important for the sound of the violin. in the period 1500-1800, the Earth experienced the Little Ice Age, associated with an increase in volcanic activity and a decrease in solar activity (Maunder Minimum).