Latest Hypergiant Stories

[ Watch the Video ] University of Manchester astronomers used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) to discover the Fried Egg Nebula. The newly discovered star has a diameter of about a thousand times bigger than the Sun and is about 13,000 light-years away from Earth.  It is the closest hypergiant found so far and shines about 500,000 times brighter than the Sun "This object was known to glow brightly in the infrared but, surprisingly, nobody had...

The latest ESO image reveals amazing detail in the intricate structures of one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky, the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), where strong winds and powerful radiation from an armada of massive stars are creating havoc in the large cloud of dust and gas from which the stars were born. The large and beautiful image displays the full variety of this impressive skyscape, spattered with clusters of young stars, large nebulae of dust and gas, dust pillars, globules,...

ESA's Integral has made the first unambiguous discovery of high-energy X-rays coming from a rare massive star at our cosmic doorstep, Eta Carinae. It is one of the most violent places in the galaxy, producing vast winds of electrically-charged particles colliding at speeds of thousands of kilometres per second.The only astronomical object that emits gamma-rays and is observable by the naked eye, Eta Carinae is monstrously large, so large that astronomers call it a hypergiant. It contains...

Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the W.M. Keck Observatory, Kameula, Hawaii, astronomers have learned that the gaseous outflow from one of the brightest super-sized stars in the sky is more complex than originally thought.The outbursts are from VY Canis Majoris, a red supergiant star that is also classified as a hypergiant because of its very high luminosity. The eruptions have formed loops, arcs, and knots of material moving at various speeds and in many different directions. The star...

By Gina KeatingLOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rings of planet-forming dust have been discovered circling two "hypergiant" stars, indicating planet formation may be taking place in environments previously thought too hostile, according to research published on Wednesday.In an article published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, astronomers concluded that planets can form around a wider range of stars than previously thought, including two "hypergiants" dubbed R66 and R126 that are...

ESO's Telescopes Uncover Super Star Cluster in the Milky Way ESO -- Super star clusters are groups of hundreds of thousands of very young stars packed into an unbelievably small volume. They represent the most extreme environments in which stars and planets can form. Until now, super star clusters were only known to exist very far away, mostly in pairs or groups of interacting galaxies. Now, however, a team of European astronomers [1] have used ESO's telescopes to uncover such a monster...