Star size

[cjsmith]

This video of star sizes in scale is mindbending.

Me: "Wow. ... Whoa."
Rob: "It's the Total Perspective Vortex."

Betelgeuse is large enough and close enough that Hubble has taken a photo of it and resolved it as more than a point source.

(Those last ones in the video are no longer the largest known stars. VY Canis Majoris is now the largest known star, a red hypergiant over two light-hours in diameter. Size comparison image on this blog.)

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Yeah, once you get away from the main sequence stars can get amazingly huge.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I also loved the color contrasts as the video progressed. I'm used to our sun being depicted as yellow, but then Sirius, Rigel, and Betelgeuse* were dramatically colored, which is nifty. Color is especially intriguing for me, as I've recently discovered (through astronomy) that my eyes are not as well-equipped with color sensors as some folks' eyes. I DON'T see star color. I do see very well in dim light, but if somebody says "to the left of the red star," I've got no clue.

* I had no idea there was such a different, but also widely used, spelling for Betelgeuse.

[ladyqkat.livejournal.com]

Cool! Reposting (with credit) in my own LJ.

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing. That was awesome.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Nifty. Have you ever seen "Powers of Ten"? It's also up on YouTube. I was fascinated by that one as a kid, too.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes, that one's great! And I love that I can get equally gleeful about how our cells eat glucose as about how big stars are.

[ericainohio.livejournal.com]

Oooooo...kewl. Thanks for my daily dose of space-geekness. (The size comparison on that blog is just....wow.)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Isn't it wonderful? I love stuff like this. It makes me want to be a big ol' space tourist, bopping around to distant planets and taking pictures of the local suns. :)

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

Until you see things side-by-side, it's really difficult to grasp the scale.
Very cool.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Definitely. Scale in astronomy is pretty hard for me to grasp anyway!

[apparentparadox]

Hey! They skipped Pluto.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Pluto's been defriended ;-)

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

pls add back kthx

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Best LJ icon ever. (Naturally, I can't find one now.)

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

it's all the same icon :)

[hnybny.livejournal.com]

I love those kind of comparisons.

[erikred.livejournal.com]

It's when you get to the point where you can measure the diameter in light-hours that the brain truly shuts down, the jaw drops, and the awesome really takes hold.

[xthread.livejournal.com]

Two Light hours - yow. <boggle>

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

that's pretty damn impressive!