Looking up at the sky inspires deep moments of introspection and curiosity. It’s easy to feel small under a starry night sky.

★ TOP 10 — Best of Hubble Space Telescope — 2015 ► www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmx19_...

THE SUN is the star at the center of the Solar System and is by far the most important source of energy for life on Earth. It is a nearly perfect spherical ball of hot plasma with internal convective motion that generates a magnetic field via a dynamo process. Its diameter is about 109 times that of Earth, and it has a mass about 330,000 times that of Earth, accounting for about 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System. Chemically, about three quarters of the Suns mass consists of hydrogen, whereas the rest is mostly helium, and much smaller quantities of heavier elements, including oxygen, carbon, neon and iron

THE PISTOL STAR is a blue hypergiant and is one of the most luminous known stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. It is one of many massive young stars in the Quintuplet cluster in the Galactic Center region. The star owes its name to the shape of the Pistol Nebula, which it illuminates. It is located approximately 25,000 light years from Earth in the direction of Sagittarius. It would be visible to the naked eye as a fourth magnitude star if it were not for the interstellar dust that completely hides it from view in visible light.

VY CANIS MAJORIS (VY CMa) is a red hypergiant star located in the constellation Canis Major. It is one of the largest stars (at one time the largest known) and also one of the most luminous of its type, and has a radius of approximately 1,420 ± 120 solar radii (equal to a diameter of 13.2 astronomical units, or about 1,976,640,000 km), and is located about 1.2 kiloparsecs (3,900 light-years) from Earth.

UY SCUTI is a bright red supergiant and pulsating variable star in the constellation Scutum. It is one of the leading candidates for being the largest known star by radius and is also one of the most luminous of its kind. It has an estimated average median radius of 1,708 solar radii, or a diameter of 2.4 billion km (1.5 billion mi; 15.9 AU); thus a volume 5 billion times that of the Sun. It is approximately 2.9 kiloparsecs (9,500 light years) from Earth.

Narrated by Scott Wayne
Created by Anders Heli Hansen

★ The Biggest MONSTER Stars — Compared to our Sun — Infographic Animation | HD © Heli