images

Hypergiant star HR 5171

by

ESO/Novapix

Reference

a-eto02-00081

Date

2017-01-29

This artist’s impression shows the yellow hypergiant star HR 5171. This is a very rare type of star with only a dozen known in our galaxy. Its size is over 1300 times that of our Sun — one of the largest ten stars found so far. Observations with ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer have shown that it is actually a double star, with the companion in contact with the main star.