Astronomy: Big Stars (original) (raw)

Some interesting big and giant stars, ordered by their distance from us.

Stars with a distance less than 2000 light-years:

| 1. Pollux (rg) ° 2. Arctur (rg) 3. Capella (yg) 4. Aldebaran (rg) 5. Regulus (bs) 6. Praecipua (rg) 7. Dubhe (rg) 8. Achernar (bs) 9. Menkar (rg) 10. Bellatrix (bs) 11. Spica (bs) 12. Thuban (yg) 13. Canopus (yg) 14. Acrux (bs) 15. Becrux (bs) 16. Ras Algethi (rg) 17. Albireo (rg, bs) 18. Rho Ophiuchi (bs) 19. Alkyone (bs) | | 20. Merope (bs) 21. Atria (rg) 22. Betelgeuse (rs) 23. R Apodis (rg) 24. Polaris (dc, yg) 25. Adhara (bs) 26. Theta Carinae (bs) 27. Zeta Ophiuchi (bs) 28. Sham (yg) 29. T Leporis (rr) 29. Hadar (bs) 30. Alpha Lupi (bs) 31. Antares (rs, bs) 32. Tsih (bs) 33. Enif (rg) 34. La Superba (rg) 35. Saiph (bs) 36. Rigel (bs) | | 37. Sigma Scorpii (bs) 38. Alnitak (bs) 39. Regor (bs, wr) 40. Mintaka (bs) 41. R Leporis (rg) 42. Arneb (yg) 43. Mu Columbae (bs) 44. Alnilam (bs) 45. S Orionis (rg) 46. Naos (bs) 47. Theta-1 Orionis C (bs) 48. AE Aurigae (bs) 49. Deneb (yg) 50. Menkib (bs) 51. Wezen (yg) 52. Garnet Star (rs) 53. L Carinae (dc) 54. 119 Tauri (rs) | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |

bs = Blue stars, rg = Red giants, yg = Yellow and white giants, rs = Red supergiants
dc = Delta Cepheids, wr = Wolf-Rayet Stars, lbv = Luminous Blue Variables
° = Star with planets

Big stars are scarce, but for their high luminosity easy to find. Most stars that we can see with the naked eye are big blue stars or giants.

Many of those stars change their size and luminosity more or less regularly. The given values here are therefore mean values.

Ordinary Blue Stars don't count as giants, but are very big for main sequence stars.

Photo: Don Figer (STScI) et al., NASA