The size of the Sun is difficult to comprehend. With a diameter of 865,000 miles, The Sun has the volume of 1.3 million Earths. If we were to place the Earth next to the Sun, we would simply see a tiny spec next to the Sun. However, the Sun is not even close to the biggest star in the universe.
About 3 kilo parsecs away from Earth sits UY Scuti, a red supergiant that has a diameter of roughly 1.5 billion miles. If this star were placed at the same location as our Sun, it would fully encompass Saturn’s orbit and almost encompass Uranus’s orbit. Furthermore, UY Scuti has the volume of over 5 billion Suns. To put the size of the Earth, the Sun, and UY Scuti in perspective, if the Earth were the size of a beachball, the Sun’s diameter would be about the height of a seven story building and UY Scuti’s diameter would be over four times the height of Mount Everest (Rebern).
(Size of UY Scuti compared to Sun)
.png){kind=link}
UY Scuti, however, is simply the biggest star that we know about. It is very possible that another star exists that dwarfs even UY Scuti. Wrapping our head around the size of this hypothetical star would be even harder.
