Christmas Star

Stars come in a big range of sizes. Our local star, the Sun, is roughly 1.4 million kilometres across. That's large - 100 times the diameter of Earth - but is tiny compared to others. One candidate for the biggest star is named UY Scuti. If placed at the centre of the Solar System it would swallow the Earth and stretch out beyond the orbit of Jupiter. Our resident data-wrangler Stuart is also an astronomer and he compiled a selection of giant stars, for his book of cosmic infographics, to show just how big they get. Hover over stars to see more information. The Sun is shown for scale.