Westerlund 1 BKS AS (Example of Report)

Westerlund 1 BKS AS, have you ever heard that? Hmmm, Westerlund 1 BKS AS or also known as Westerlund 1 W26 and Westerlund 1-26 is red hypergiant star. One year ago, I’ve heard that VY Canis Majoris or VY CMa is the biggest star, but now VY CMa is the eighth biggest star in the universe. Even a few months ago, the biggest star is NML Cygni. However, according to data from Astronomy said that Westerlund 1 BKS AS is the biggest star the astronomers have found yet and also one of the most luminous red supergiants known. Westerlund 1 BKS AS located in Westerlund cluster or in the southern constellation Ara or 16,000 light years from Earth.

When the astronomers studied the images of Westerlund 1 BKS AS using the Very Large Telescope Survey Telescope they spotted something unique. They discovered a huge cloud of glowing hydrogen gas around W26, something very rarely found around these hypergiant stars. In fact, the only other nebula they've seen like it is around a star called SN1987A. This is a big hint that what they're seeing here is W26 blowing off its outer layers and it may be on the verge of exploding, not just as a supernova, but possibly a hypernova. Such clouds are ionized, meaning that the electrons have been stripped away from the atoms of hydrogen gas. The discovery is described in a paper appearing in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (arXiv.org). Clouds of this type are rarely found around massive stars and are even rarer around red supergiant stars such as Westerlund.

Like the other big star, Westerlund became so big because hydrogen fuel has run out on it and began to combine hydrogen with the outer shell of the helium nucleus & when all the fusion fuel runs out, the star will collapse catastrophically in a supernova explosion & it will become a black hole.

According to data from Info Astronomy, the diameter of Westerlund 1 BKS AS is 3.54 billion km while the diameter of the Sun is only 1.3 million km. According to the data about VY Canis Majoris, if the passenger airplane flying along the surface at 900 km/h! It would take 1100 years to circle it one time and if the light surrounding VY Canis Majoris will take approximately 8 hours. Imagine VY Canis Majoris was just having a diameter of 2.9 billion miles, how about Westerlund 1 BKS AS which has a diameter of 3.54 billion miles, it will take approximately 1350 years. If we placed Westerlund 1 BKS AS to the center of the solar system, its surface can reach Saturn. Can you imagine? The sun only looks like a yellow dot. If sun just like that, what about Earth? What about you? You’re nothing.

So Westerlund 1 BKS AS is the biggest star the astronomers have found yet, which 16.64 billion times bigger than the Sun. Westerlund 1 BKS AS discovered a unique huge cloud of glowing hydrogen gas around the surface which rarely found around these hypergiant stars.