Is antares the largest sun in our galaxy?

Question

Is it even in our galaxy and do you know if there are potentially larger ones in our galaxy?
This question stemmed from: http://www.howbigistheworld.com/

Answer 1

The supernova that was reported on Monday, SN 2006gy, was the largest ever recorded in the brief time man has made astronomical records.

It was suggested that Eta Carina which is 7500 Lihht years away and in our galaxy could well undergo a similar Supernova Explosion of a similar type.

Antares is at a distance of approx. 600 light years away and therefore very much part of our galaxy and our near neighbour within it.

It has a mass of 15.5 Solar Masses, a radius of 700 Solar Radii and a Luminosity 65,000 x that of the Sun.

There are nine larger stars however.

TOP TEN LARGEST KNOWN STARS
(all in our galaxy)

Star name solar diameter (Sun = 1)

1. VY Canis Majoris (Humphreys Model) 1800-2100 (5,000 light years away)

2. VV Cephei 1600-1900 (3,000 light years away)

3. V354 Cephei 1520 (9,000 light-years away)

4. KW Sagitarii 1460 (9,800 light-years away)

5. KY Cygni 1420 (5,200 light-years away)

6, Mu Cephei (Herschel's "Garnet Star") 1420 (3,000 light years away)

7. V509 Cassiopeiae 910 (7,800 light years away)

8. V838 Monocerotis 800 (20,000 light years away)

9. V382 Carinae 747 (at least 3,000 light years away)

10. Antares (Alpha Scorpii) 700

(and 11, Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis) 650 (427 light years away)

Answer 2

Antares is a Big Star, no doubt about it! But there are many much larger.

Here's a link about Antares:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antares#Properties

It's a Class M Supergiant.. about 15 to 18 times the mass of our sun. And, yes, it is in our Galaxy... it's about 600 light years away.

However, there are stars that are much larger... they're called HyperGiants. Here's a link about them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypergiant#Known_hypergiants

When a HyperGiant star blows up it is called a HyperNova.. even bigger than a SuperNova... 100 times as much energy or more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypernova

Here's a list of the Largest Known Stars:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_known_stars

VY Canis Majoris is the largest known HyperGiant - it's about 5,000 light years away... and they expect it will blow up within a few thousand years (maybe as early as 3200 AD).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VY_Canis_Majoris

Answer 3

No, amazingly there are even bigger stars than this! Mu Cephei and W Cephei are 2 of them for example. If you are under a broadband connection try watching the following video to convince yourself and get an idea of how much bigger than Antares some stars may be.

Answer 4

Lo there,
I think the web page you found has been taken from these ones.....
http://www.samtsai.com/p318
http://www.samtsai.com/p468

The second one shows a good video clip of how the size of planets increase, then it moves to stars..........there are bigger stars than Antares, such as Pistol Star etc...