R136a1 - the biggest star, the revolution in modern astronomy

When night falls, we can all see thousands of stars in the sky. With the naked eye, they seem like each other. However, it is not. Astronomers have long proven that there are no two identical stars in the universe. Each of them is different in composition, color, luminous intensity, temperature, mass and other characteristics.

Only one star seems special from the Earth - this is the Sun. It is located as close to the Earth as possible. But, despite this feature, the Sun has tiny dimensions compared with other stars. So, for example, This Keel weighs as 100-150 of our Suns.

Asking the question of which is the biggest star in the universe, one can not expect an unambiguous answer. Space is not fully understood and, most likely, to explore every corner of the vast emptiness will be impossible. It is much more correct to ask: "What is the biggest star of all the known ones."

On June 21, 2010, astronomers discovered a light that was given the code R136a1. For today it is the biggest star of all, discovered by science. You can imagine such a hulk just by knowing how much weight it has - 265 solar masses! Its brightness is 8.7 million times that of the Sun. From our system of planets, the R136a1 is so far away that it can not be seen from the Earth with the naked eye.

Modern technologies allow us to measure the indices of celestial bodies, which are located from us at a distance of millions of light years. Thus, the temperature at the surface of the star R136a1 is more than 50,000 ° K (Kelvin). Because of the high intensity of the glow, the biggest star produces a grand level of the stellar wind and a colossal flow of the release of the substances of its body into the surrounding space.

According to the hypotheses of astronomers, all stars in the course of time decrease in mass. The largest star in the universe is 1 million years old. During this time, it decreased in mass by one fifth. Accordingly, before it was even more.

The largest star was detected using the VLT and Hubble telescope system. Her discovery was an incredible breakthrough in modern astronomy. After all, before that it was believed that stars with a mass of more than 150 solar masses, in principle, can not exist. But a fresh discovery made us revise modern fundamental knowledge about the structure of the universe. So R136a1 was able to refute the theory of astronomical scientists.

Earlier, stars reaching 150 solar masses were called supergiants. They were the largest in space. Star R136a1 was assigned a completely new class - the hypergiant. Scientists from the German institute named after Argelander hypothesized that there are other hypergigantas in the universe, and they appear from the merger of two supergiants.

According to astronomers, R136a1 is not only the largest and heaviest star, but also the brightest of all. As it was written above, the Sun is duller than it is almost 10 million times.

How long will R136a1 have the title of the biggest? Probably not. This will remain so until the scientists discover the new largest star in the universe. And understanding the infinity and unpredictability of the cosmos, you can think that until the next record is not so long.