The biggest star that we have ever found in the universe is Stephenson 2-18. It’s so big that if it were placed at the centre of the solar system, its edge would reach the orbit of Saturn. Even light, the fastest known entity in the universe would take around 9 hours to circle the entire star once. And if you fly around it in an aircraft traveling at 925 km/hr, it would take 500 years to go around it. Stephenson 2-18 is a young red hypergiant star lying about 19,000 light years away in an open cluster of stars called Stephenson 18. Currently, the star is about 440,000 times more luminous than the Sun. As it ages, it will continue to grow larger and brighter, eventually ending its life in a spectacular supernova, forming a black hole.

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