Size of Stars

The stars in the universe are different in many ways, for instance in their size. While neutron stars can have a diameter of only a few tens of kilometers, the white dwarfs are about as big as Earth. And although the diameter of our Sun is about 109 times larger than the diameter of the Earth, the Sun belongs among the rather small stars.



It's obvious especially when compared with actual stellar giants, such as the blue-white super-giant Deneb in the Cygnus constellation, which surpasses the diameter of Sun roughly 200 times, or with the 730 times larger red super-giant Betelgeuse in the Orion constellation. One of the largest known stars in the universe - a gigantic red super-giant UY Scuti in the Shield constellation - overcomes the diameter of our Sun even 1700 times!