The Five Largest Stars in the Universe: A Thousand Times the Size of the Sun

Seen from Earth with the naked eye, stars appear only as twinkling points of light decorating the night sky.

However, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), stars are actually high-pressure balls of gas floating in outer space.

Stars are estimated to be formed from a mixture of approximately 94% hydrogen gas (H2), 5% helium (He), and 1% other elements, and have very high temperatures reaching thousands or even tens of thousands of degrees Celsius.

Stars also have incredibly large sizes. The Sun, the star closest to Earth, is estimated to have a diameter of about 130 million kilometers (km). Beyond that, there are other stars with sizes thousands of times larger than the Sun.

Based on *starlust.org*, here are the 5 largest stars in the universe recorded to date:

1. UY Scuti – diameter 2.38 billion km
2. KY Cygni – diameter 1.98 billion km
3. AH Scorpii – diameter 1.96 billion km
4. VV Cephei – diameter 1.85 billion km
5. V766 Centauri Aa – diameter 1.54 billion km

UY Scuti is currently recorded as the largest star in the universe, with a diameter 1,700 times larger than the Sun.

UY Scuti was discovered by German astronomers at the Bonn Observatory in 1860. This supergiant star is 5,219 light-years from Earth and is located near the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

The surface temperature of UY Scuti is estimated to reach 3,091 degrees Celsius. This temperature is lower compared to the surface temperature of the Sun, which reaches 5,504 degrees Celsius.

(See Also: [List of the Largest Asteroids in the Solar System])