Celestia Forums

As of 2017, the largest stars are red hypergiants Westerlund 1-26, NML Cygni and UY Scuti. VY Canis Majoris has been moved to 7th place on the list of largest stars (see Wikipedia and other reliable sites) with a radius of 1,420 solar radii (see detail page on Google, Wikipedia, etc.) While Luke and I have made addons that include them, I would like to see what your addons would look like of the new largest star recordholders.

Information that might be useful:
NML Cygni is the 18th largest star with a radius of 1,183 solar radii on Wikipedia and Google, but most sites and sources give 2nd place with radii of near 1,650 solar radii
(calculating NML Cygni's size: Square root of ( (5772/ 3250)^4 x 270,000 ) = 1,638 solar radii (I think the old size is way better). )
NML Cygni is also surrounded by a cloud of ionized hydrogen. Artist's impression: https://i.imgur.com/jtzCI6d.png
Westerlund 1-26 has a radius that is not well known. Estimates range from 1,530 to 2,544 solar radii. W 1-26 is also surrounded by an ionized hydrogen nebula ~2.6 parsecs across.
Westerlund 1-26 lies in a star cluster named Westerlund 1 that has several red and yellow hypergiants, as well as blue ones.
UY Scuti is surrounded by a water vapor and hydrogen nebula that has a diameter of 884 astronomical units. UY Scuti can extend past the orbit of Saturn with 1,708 + 192 solar radii.
The entire list of largest stars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_stars?oldid=806759885 (note: this was the last good/reliable version prior to useless disruptive edits. Please don't use the latest version as the information has been corrupted.

If you want to enter this contest, remember to include a (Google Drive sharing and view) download link along with your final copy. The prize will be a YouTube video showing your addon with you given credit. There are three winners; one for an addon for W 1-26, NML Cyg, and UY Sct. It is highly recommended that you include screenshots with your posts, and make your own textures for the star themselves (optional: make the star's textures turbulent, as that is the nature of red hypergiants).

Thank you and good luck. - Joey P.

Joey P. wrote:While Luke and I have made addons that include them, I would like to see what your addons would look like of the new largest star recordholders.

Yeah...about that add-on. My Largest Stars add-on hasn't been updated since January 2017, because it relied on the Wikipedia article of List of largest stars. You should always be careful of directly citing Wikipedia, but now it looks like the article is being edited contentiously, so I'm not updating it (for now).

Luke

@Luke

I have modified some parts of your addon to keep it up to date with the current information. I have added BI Cygni, S Persei, RS Persei, IRC+10420, as well as modifying the radius for VV Cephei A and NML Cygni. Also, I have tried editing the article to keep it up to date with the widely accepted accurate information, but they kept undoing it and that led to a chain reaction of events that led to me getting blocked.

Download link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZAS8x8moOJuWqMgCuc1pvRwUxaHcn-uF/view?usp=sharing

Thank you. Joey P.

Added after 4 hours 53 minutes:
Here is an image of my version of your addon:

Stars in order are: UY Sct, NML Cyg, WOH G64, RW Cep, W 1-26, VX Sgr, V354 Cep, KY Cyg, VY CMa, AH Sco, VV Cep A (the white glare is VV Cep B), IRC+10420, HR 5171, SMC 18136, Mu Cep, and S Per.