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Friday, March 14, 2014

Yellow Hypergiant Star HR 5171


This artist’s impression shows the yellow hypergiant star HR 5171. This is a very rare type of star with only a dozen known in our galaxy. Its size is over 1300 times that of our Sun — one of the largest ten stars found so far. Observations with ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer have shown that it is actually a double star, with the companion in contact with the main star.

Illustration credit: ESO

Note: For more information, see VLT Spots Largest Yellow Hypergiant Star.

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