Stars come in a wide variety of sizes, from tiny red dwarfs that are only slightly larger than Jupiter, to massive supergiants that can be over a thousand times the size of our sun. The star size is determined by its mass, with more massive stars being larger and hotter than less massive stars.
One of the smallest known stars is the red dwarf, which is only about 60,000 times the size of the earth. Despite their small size, red dwarfs are incredibly long-lived and can burn for trillions of years.
On the other end of the spectrum are the massive supergiants, which can be over a thousand times larger than the sun. These massive stars burn through their fuel at an incredibly fast rate and have lifetimes of only a few million years.
In between these extremes are stars like our sun, which is about 400 times larger than the earth and has a lifespan of about 10 billion years.
It’s also worth noting that there are other types of celestial objects that are even more massive than the largest known stars such as neutron stars and black holes. A neutron star can be just a few miles across but can have more mass than the sun, while a black hole can have an infinitely small point of singularity but have mass of multiple suns.
So next time you look up at the night sky, remember that the stars you see come in a wide variety of sizes and that each one has its own unique characteristics and story to tell.
In dramatic and popular videos featured on YouTube(below video), the relative sizes of planets, stars, and even the universe are shown from smallest to largest. The featured video begins with Earth’s Moon and progresses through increasingly larger moons and planets in our Solar System.
So next time you look up at the night sky, remember that the stars you see come in a wide variety of sizes and that each one has its own unique characteristics and story to tell.