Nearly three billion Suns could fit inside VY Canis Majoris — by volume, not by mass. But the most unsettling part is not its size. It is that this red hypergiant has no clean edge, hides inside its own dust, and may be approaching an ending we would barely see.
In this evidence-led investigation, we follow the measurement behind the headline: the Very Large Telescope Interferometer, the radius estimate of about 1,420 Suns, the enormous nebula recorded by Hubble, dust grains pushed by starlight, and a mass-loss rate equivalent to roughly 30 Earths each year.
Sources and further reading:
• Wittkowski et al., Astronomy & Astrophysics (2012): https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/pdf/2012/04/aa19126-12.pdf
• Humphreys et al., The Astronomical Journal (2021): https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10314565
• Scicluna et al. (2015): https://arxiv.org/abs/1511.07624
• NASA Hubble — VY Canis Majoris: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-solves-mystery-of-monster-stars-dimming/
• European Southern Observatory: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1546/
Official imagery: NASA/ESA/STScI and ESO; detailed credits are retained in the production package. Additional licensed footage: Pexels. Artist illustrations and explanatory graphics are identified by context and are not presented as telescope photographs.
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00:00 Nearly three billion Suns?
01:05 The title — and the important correction
01:15 How astronomers measure a star with no edge
02:07 A diameter light crosses in 110 minutes
02:39 Where does the star actually end?
03:10 Centuries of violent eruptions
04:01 Dust that starlight can push
04:26 Thirty Earth masses every year
04:59 A massive star grows old
05:40 The universe recycles a dying star
06:00 Supernova or silent collapse?
06:23 The honest answer
07:01 Next: the Kardashev scale
