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We are nothing

Z

Zwhaler

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jun 10, 2006
7,302
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I know that posting YouTube videos on the MR forums is generally frowned upon, but I really thought this one was worth sharing. I searched and couldn't find it on here, so I though why not. Many of you might have seen it before, it is called the "Star Scale" and it basically shows how big Earth and the Sun are compared to the other mind blowingly colossal stars are.

Link to video

Also, at the end of the video it shows the largest star, VV Cephei A, and compares it to the sun.

Last year they discovered an even larger star, VY Canis Majoris, so here is a picture I found comparing it to the sun. If you click the picture it will show it at full size (it is a very large image, 56K warning), and with all of its glory.

Sun_and_VY_Canis_Majoris.png


So, what do you guys think?
 
Zwhaler said:
I know that posting YouTube videos on the MR forums is generally frowned upon, but I really thought this one was worth sharing. I searched and couldn't find it on here, so I though why not. Many of you might have seen it before, it is called the "Star Scale" and it basically shows how big Earth and the Sun are compared to the other mind blowingly colossal stars are.

Link to video

Also, at the end of the video it shows the largest star, VV Cephei A, and compares it to the sun.

Last year they discovered an even larger star, VY Canis Majoris, so here is a picture I found comparing it to the sun. If you click the picture it will show it at full size (it is a very large image, 56K warning), and with all of its glory.

Sun_and_VY_Canis_Majoris.png


So, what do you guys think?
Click to expand...

Good grief, that thing is massive.
 
Cassie said:


Good grief, that thing is massive.
Click to expand...

And to think that is only the biggest star we know so far. There is probably bigger stars then that out there that Hubble can't see. Who cares really, we're doomed one way or another. Whether it is just from the sun burning the inner planets to hell when it becomes a red giant or when Andromeda comes to say hi to the Milky Way and we get sucked into the massive black hole in our galaxy or flung out to rot in the universe.
 
Did they say what the mass of this newly-discovered star is? Because I'd bet a donut that it's not nearly as massive as you think... rather than being fairly dense like our sun, it's probably very thinly arranged, so that if you had a melt-proof spaceship, you could fly through it in much the same way as you'd fly an airplane through clouds.
 
quagmire said:
Whether it is just from the sun burning the inner planets to hell when it becomes a red giant or when Andromeda comes to say hi to the Milky Way and we get sucked into the massive black hole in our galaxy or flung out to rot in the universe.
Click to expand...


Thanks. :D I shall bear that in mind next time I'm feeling cheerful, just to temper any giddy but futile notions of happiness.
 
clayj said:
Did they say what the mass of this newly-discovered star is? Because I'd bet a donut that it's not nearly as massive as you think... rather than being fairly dense like our sun, it's probably very thinly arranged, so that if you had a melt-proof spaceship, you could fly through it in much the same way as you'd fly an airplane through clouds.
Click to expand...
Actually, this star falls into the "hypergiant" class of stars which are the most luminous and massive stars theoretically possible (based on the Eddington limit). These stars are about 120x more massive and thousands to millions of times more luminous than our star, the Sun.
 
EricNau said:
Actually, this star falls into the "hypergiant" class of stars which are the most luminous and massive stars theoretically possible (based on the Eddington limit). These stars are about 120x more massive and thousands to millions of times more luminous than our star, the Sun.
Click to expand...

Yup, I think this one has a volume of more than 8 billion suns... according to wikipedia I think that the diameter is aroung 2,000 suns. The volume is wayy more though.
 
I read somewhere that if the sun were replace by our friend VY, it would go past the orbit of Saturn. (and thats only in one direction)
 
Isn't our Sun supposed to expand greatly over the next x billion years, eventually engulfing the Earth, and then collapse and become a dwarf? I think I won't live to see that, but that will be interesting when it does occur.
 
c073186 said:
Isn't our Sun supposed to expand greatly over the next x billion years, eventually engulfing the Earth, and then collapse and become a dwarf? I think I won't live to see that, but that will be interesting when it does occur.
Click to expand...
Indeed. In 5-6 billion years the Sun will enter its Red Supergiant stage, with the outer layers engulfing the earth. Following this, the outer layers will be thrown off in a planetary nebula leaving behind a white dwarf star.
 
Much Ado said:
Actually, a thread about the sheer enormity of the universe and our apparent insignificance in it (we are nothing) is bound to draw comments of the religious sort.
Click to expand...


Well, yes. But we all know where that's going to lead us and I'm not sure that's what the OP or most of the people who've posted in this thread really want.

It's probably best to stick to astronomy and astrophysics...
 
quagmire said:
And to think that is only the biggest star we know so far. There is probably bigger stars then that out there that Hubble can't see. Who cares really, we're doomed one way or another. Whether it is just from the sun burning the inner planets to hell when it becomes a red giant or when Andromeda comes to say hi to the Milky Way and we get sucked into the massive black hole in our galaxy or flung out to rot in the universe.
Click to expand...

Remind me in a few billion years when it will be something that anyone has to actually worry about.

Please by the time any of this happens we will have been obliterated by machines taking over the Earth:eek:, Terminator style (with us losing though) not Matrix. That or government welfare, healthcare and other "social" programs will have succeeded in throwing survival of the fittest out the window and we will have devolved into some sort of Newt.
 
EricNau said:
Indeed. In 5-6 billion years the Sun will enter its Red Supergiant stage, with the outer layers engulfing the earth. Following this, the outer layers will be thrown off in a planetary nebula leaving behind a white dwarf star.
Click to expand...

That is if our sun sees it's red giant stage( not big enough to be a supergiant). Andromeda is destined to collide with the Milky Way. Depending where we are at the time, we might be thrown out of the galaxy and be a lonely solar system in the universe or be sucked into the massive black hole that is in the center of our universe when it starts feeding......
 
skunk said:
I thought the collision was already under way.
Click to expand...

Nope, not until some millions of years from now. In 800 years or so, we have another life ending asteroid heading our way with a pretty good chance of hitting......
 
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