boston.com — A huge ball of brightly burning gas drifting through a neighboring galaxy may be the heaviest star ever discovered -- hundreds of times more massive than the sun, scientists said Wednesday after working out its weight for the first time.
Jul 21, 2010 View in Crawl 4
eh123Jul 21, 2010
The massive ball of hot gas was located in the Michael Moore constellation.
diggthebobJul 21, 2010
Your mom is a ball of hot gas.
eh123Jul 21, 2010
Good one, Potsie.
diggthebobJul 23, 2010
That's the point. My joke was as stupid as yours.
Do you get it now that I've explained it?
mfoley89Jul 21, 2010
The size of things:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEheh1BH34Q&hd=1
h0dgesJul 21, 2010
Guess it needs updating now!
veggieslaveJul 21, 2010
Fact: Star Search did not give this star a star.
carbonetcJul 21, 2010
The star has mass, not weight.
/pedant
gooliaJul 21, 2010
The star is bigger than the sun, simply amazing.
bwjacketJul 21, 2010
Many are. Our sun isn't particularly large or special.
doctechnicalJul 21, 2010
Well it's special to *me*.
/I love you Sol. Really.
bdog2g2Jul 21, 2010
The sun's not classified as a yellow dwarf for s**ts n giggles.
lbxac20Jul 21, 2010
The sun is actually larger than most stars, but this is because the vast majority of stars are small class M red dwarfs. In absolute terms however the sun is merely average.
YaTiddleJul 21, 2010
How's this for a scientific mind freak?
http://whatdoyoucare.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/sizeofworld.jpg
bdog2g2Jul 21, 2010
The sun's not classified as a yellow dwarf for s**ts n giggles.
rudegarJul 21, 2010
you know what our sun is?
that's right a star :)
overdrivenJul 21, 2010
Our sun is a tiny star.
arcadianskyJul 21, 2010
not as massive as my...
andrewdbJul 21, 2010
I agree, it's not as massive as your Ego.
arcadianskyJul 21, 2010
there's a paradox somewhere in there.
breadfredJul 21, 2010
ass?
boardthisJul 21, 2010
lifted truck
Closed AccountJul 21, 2010
not as massive as my thoughts?
hey diggers are not ditry minded.
even if ur three dots means something
terrible, but still we diggers can fix it for u.
diggers can fix anything.
~am i right diggers?Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
boardthisJul 21, 2010
it was drifting through the neighborhood driving its escalade drunk off her ass and high on coke.
firesightsJul 21, 2010
Whoa, that's * 8-) * heavy.
bstew22Jul 21, 2010
This account has been closed by the user
4ndr01dJul 21, 2010
and I thought Gabrielle Sidibe was the most massive star ever discovered
fadetooneJul 21, 2010
I laughed...
but it's Gabourey
simplyfungusJul 21, 2010
Reading the article and seeing the outrageously high temperature the sun can put out placed a question in my mind. Is there some upper physical limit to temperature similar to how there is an absolute zero? I understand at absolute zero (theoretically) all movement on the molecular level stops, but can things get too hot? Anyone have any thoughts?
spillman13Jul 21, 2010
Isn't that what plasma is? I need to brush up, but from what I remember, molecules can get so hot they start ionizing themselves and becoming different elements or a different state of matter entirely. A typical example is when the oxygen molecules ionize after coming in to contact with the Space Shuttle as it descends into the atmosphere.
bdog2g2Jul 21, 2010
Just prior to the Big Bang the universe was infinitely small, dense, and one could hot.
Just after the big bang the temperature about 10^(-43) seconds (a Plank time) the temperature was 10^32K. Which is about 1.73070267 × 10^28 times hotter than the surface of the sun.
Once temperatures reach too hot you get to a point where there's only energy. Even fundamental forces near conditions of the Big Bang aren't apparent.
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/BBhistory.html
pinnacleoflogicJul 21, 2010
The opposite of absolute zero is "absolute hot", which is the highest attainable thermal energy by any form of matter. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_hot for more info.
Btw spillman, plasma is simply protons, i.e. hydrogen ions. Atoms of all elements can become plasma provided the ionization energy is sufficient.
avatar28Jul 21, 2010
Followed the link from there to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_temperature. My mind is officially blown now:
"A substance with a negative temperature is not colder than absolute zero, but rather it is hotter than infinite temperature."
Damn, physics! You weird!
Closed AccountJul 21, 2010
My first thought is that the molecules supposedly wouldn't be able to go beyond the speed of light. But I don't believe that is really the universal speed limit, so I guess I'm not the person to ask.
starmanjonesJul 23, 2010
i think in general hot is a measure of how much of it is energy. e=mc^2 and all that. until you leave the physics we live under gamma rays are the most energetic and they obey the "speed of light" speed limit.
h0dgesJul 21, 2010
Planck Temperature.
All Planck units are either stupidly small or stupidly huge:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck_units
slapdedJul 21, 2010
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lex0429Jul 21, 2010
Or the inside of a hot pocket, specifically the ham and cheese ones.
slapdedJul 21, 2010
This account has been closed by the user
copypastryJul 21, 2010
LEAVE A COMMENT ON MY WEBZONE IF YOU WANT A PIZZA ROLL
Closed AccountJul 21, 2010
just observing it causes it to collapse.
gustomuchoJul 21, 2010
Well, I found new stars myself :
http://www.boston.com/thingstodo/gallery/celticsdancersfinals10/
glimmertwin87Jul 21, 2010
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discolandoJul 21, 2010
I must be spending too much time on Digg lately... I could have sworn your comment said cannabis.
clonedJul 21, 2010
It's not bigger than Canis Majoris, just more massive.
There are a lot of stars more massive than Canis Majoris.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_massive_stars#List_of_the_most_massive_stars
glimmertwin87Jul 21, 2010
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thahmzJul 21, 2010
Obese? Must be American.
Problem?
tunaktunakJul 21, 2010
They should name this star Ramadu...
/nerd points if you get it
discolandoJul 21, 2010
Yay... Science!
loaded123Jul 21, 2010
So how much bigger is thing thing than Canis Majoris? It's unbelievable how big these stars are when you compare them to a human or even the earth.
testiculeseJul 21, 2010
If you were to 'stand' in a place where this star is wholly within your field of vision, the *sun* would be too small to be visible...let alone our planet.
Closed AccountJul 21, 2010
It's not larger, its more massive.
dargoesdiggingJul 21, 2010
R136a1 is more massive than VY Canis Majoris (About 23 times more massive)
However, the latter is far, far larger (Volume)
R136a1 would fit into VY Canis Majoris about 1,720,144 times (Assuming approx. r=20xSol's r).
Our own Sun would fit into it over 46 billion times.
And the Earth? Around 60 quadrillion times :)
Hypergiants: They're f**king BIG.
jflindallJul 21, 2010
hmm. i guess that makes this other top dugg image a lie. http://digg.com/space/Space_It_s_Vast_PIC
clonedJul 21, 2010
I dugg you because I love that image and more people need to see it. However, this new star is not the largest star we've found, just the most massive.
Canis Majoris is larger but has less mass.
Closed AccountJul 21, 2010
mfoley might have beat me to it, but if you don't have video access at work...
http://jso-mccabe.com/images/Stars_Relative_Sizes.jpg
Puts things in perspective, I wonder where this new star would fit
arcadianskyJul 21, 2010
Andrew, there's a paradox somewhere in there.
sudopinionJul 21, 2010
This is really far away, so I'm not gonna worry bout it. It's not even american.
xsubmergedJul 21, 2010
"Unlike humans, these stars are born heavy and lose weight as they age,"...that's a strange statement...what do humans and stars have in common?
Even something like "unlike a black hole, these stars are born heavy and lose weight as they age" would have made more sense...odd
warpfieldJul 21, 2010
Maybe it was supposed to read "Unlike most Americans...." :)
Closed AccountJul 21, 2010
hey i'm a christian!
piieerrrreeJul 22, 2010
ok
smargJul 21, 2010
Oh great. All we need is a morbidly obese star to support on our taxpayer's dime.
;)
Closed AccountJul 21, 2010
Your mamma is so fat, she's bigger than R136a1.
sperroneJul 21, 2010
I've always wondered how much of our Solar System would fit into Canis Majoris...anyone know?
testiculeseJul 21, 2010
Sol isn't even visible when looking at Canis.
zombiegeezusJul 21, 2010
Sol
craigdj55Jul 21, 2010
Stars.. always on accelerated diets! Oh wait this star is in space, not Holloywood.
lohphatJul 21, 2010
It's not larger than VY Canis Majoris
http://www.worldinterestingfacts.com/nature/largest-star-ever-known-in-the-universe.html
clonedJul 21, 2010
For those wondering, this is not the largest star discovered, simply the most massive. Canis Majoris is still larger than this star as far as size goes.
bradleyyeeJul 21, 2010
mines bigger