Stars- How big are they?

For decades astronomers have been plagued with the burning question, just how big are stars? From our perspective, here on earth it can be hard to gauge their enormity. But, by training the Hubble Space Telescope on the densest known cluster of stars in our galaxy, experts at the Space Telescope Science Institute have put many of those questions to rest. Determining star size has been difficult due to the lack of direct observations. In previous studies it was determined that the smallest stars are approximately one-twelfth the size of our sun. To put that into perspective, the sun is 300,000 times the size of the Earth.

The stars researched were estimated to be 2.5 millions years old which is imperative because stars any younger than that are shrouded in dust, making them difficult to see. On the other hand, stars older than that would have exploded or died off by that point. Researchers spent several years analyzing and measuring stars in the “Arches Cluster,” a star formation that lies 25,000 light years away, where huge clouds of gas collide forming some of the largest stars known. After measuring about 1,000 stars researchers found they ranged in size from six to 130 times the size of the sun. Scientists have also been able to establish a limit on how big stars are, which is; up to 150 time the size of our sun. These findings are expected to help astronomers understand how stars are formed, how they age and how they die. 

The universe's biggest stars have been of particular interest in recent years because of what happens when they die. Both “black holes” (a region of space resulting from the collapse of a star) and “gamma ray bursts” (brief bursts of highly energetic electromagnetic radiation emitted by radioactive decay) are thought to be created when the most massive stars collapse. According to astronomers, bigger stars are thought to die faster than smaller stars. Experts say it is possible that future observations will detect stars larger than 150 times the size of the sun. Who knows what other amazing discovers will be uncovered in the following decades about space? But, one thing is certain, the more we learn about the real unknown the more unbelievable it seems to be. So when you wish upon a star remember how vast they really are and how many wishes they have the capacity to hold.