The simulacrum above is of the Westerlund 1 cluster , a group of stars judge to be between 11,000 and 15,000 light - yr from Earth . What distinguishes this group from many other pretty collection of stars is the red hypergiant star Westerlund 1 - 26 .
Westerlund 1 - 26 is so declamatory that if its kernel was where the Sun is , its out edge would protract past the eye socket of Jupiter , giving it a r more than 1,500 times that of our own star . By comparison , Betelgeuse , the largest star by intensity in our corner of the galaxy , is unremarkably estimated at a little over half that r , although measurements vary .
Likemost clump , the stars of Westerlund-1 are thought to have been born at the same time , approximately 3 million year ago . However , bunch members deviate in mass . Since the larger the slew , the faster a maven go through its lifecycle , Westerlund 1 - 26 has age rapidly , passing through stellar juvenility and middle age to reach out the red giant phase – although in its caseful , it ’s so great it is term a hypergiant .
Westerlund-1 , in the configuration Ara , lie in the focal point of the more dumbly tamp down parts of our coltsfoot and is heavily obscured by dust at seeable wavelengths . Most of what we know about the cluster comes from radio and infrared observations , since the dust blocks less of these . Consequently , Hubble ’s image , shown above , is a rare example of a clean-cut visible light shot .
Stars do n’t stay in the red jumbo phase angle long , at least by galactic banner , and at some point in the not too distant future , Westerlund 1 - 26 will turn into a supernova and give us a spectacular show . Before that , however , it will become a Wolf - Rayet mavin , a stagecoach in the organic evolution of very large lead marked by ionized emission lines , deficiency of atomic number 1 , and inordinately strong stellar winds .
Even without its prime attraction , Westerland 1 is one of the largest star clusters in the Galax urceolata , with an estimated 63,000 solar batch . If you ’re having trouble picking Westerland 1 - 26 out of the photo above , that is because there are three other red supergiant in the cluster , along with many other tremendous stars of types that are very uncommon elsewhere in the universe . One of the stars is thought to be the final result of two gravid stars jar and merging , and at least one oddment of a previous supernova has been detected .
