UY Scuti
red supergiant star in the constellation Scutum
Key facts
- Constellation
- Scutum
- Right ascension
- 18 27 36.5334
- Declination
- −12 ° 27 ′ 58.866 ″
- Apparent magnitude v
- 8.29 - 10.56
- Evolutionary stage
- Extreme red supergiant or hypergiant
- Spectral type
- M2-M4Ia-Iab (M4Iae)
- U b color index
- +3.29
- B v color index
- +3.00
- Variable type
- SRc
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
UY Scuti (BD-12°5055) is a red supergiant or hypergiant star, located 5,900 light-years away in the constellation Scutum. It is also a pulsating variable star, with a maximum brightness of magnitude 8.29 and a minimum of magnitude 10.56, which makes it too dim for naked-eye visibility. It is considered to be one of the largest known stars, with a radius estimated at 909 solar radii (632 million kilometres; 4.23 astronomical units), thus a volume of 750 million times that of the Sun. This estimate implies that if it were placed at the center of the Solar System, its photosphere would extend past the orbit of Mars or even the asteroid belt.
Nomenclature and observational history