Sunday, 17 April 2016

Smallest star

Stars vary in different sizes. There are giant stars and tiny ones. Proxima Centauri is one of the closest stars, 4.25 light-years away from us. Its radius is 200,000 kilometres across and 12.3% of a solar mass. In comparison, Jupiter's diameter is 139,822 kilometres across, but Proxima isn't the smallest star found!
OGLE-TR-122 is a binary star system housing the smallest known star right now, OGLE-TR-122B. It is approximated to be 0.12 solar radii, (The radius of our sun) making it only around 20% bigger than Jupiter's radius! It has a mass of around 0.1 solar masses, (The mass of our sun) making it 100 times denser than Jupiter. This star is one of the smallest sizes of stars thought to be possible. 

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