The VY Canis Majoris is the largest among all of the stars in the Milky Way. Found in the constellation Canis Major by the French astronomer Jerome Lalande, this red Hypergiant star is calculated to have a radius at least 1,800 that of the sun’s. Though not the most luminous among all known stars, it still ranks among the top 50.
VY Canis Majoris a.k.a. VY CMa is about 4,900 light years from the Earth. This value, however, is just a rough estimate because it is too far for parallax to be used. Parallax is the most common method for measuring star distances.
Being a semi regular variable star, VY Canis Majoris exhibits periodic light changes, and this moment lasts for about 2,200 days.
Lalande recorded VY CMa on March 7, 1801, listing it as a 7th magnitude star. Apparent magnitude is a unit of measurement for the brightness of a star as observed from Earth. The greater a star’s magnitude, the less bright it is.