When it comes to space, it is common to speak of large spaces and objects. Therefore, in the cosmic scheme of things the Earth is quite small. Even in our own solar system we are quite small. According to NASA, more than 1,000 Earths fit inside Jupiter. In addition, according to Cornell University, the Sun can fit more than a million Earths.
However, our Sun is also tiny when compared to the largest stars we know of. The Sun is a yellow dwarf, quite medium in size on the cosmic scale. In fact, some hypergiant stars are vastly larger. Probably the largest star ever known is UY Scuti, which could host approximately more than 1,700 of our suns.
UY Scuti is about 30 times bigger than our Sun. However, this shows that mass and size do not necessarily correlate with space.
Black holes
Moving up the list of large cosmic objects, black holes, and in particular supermassive black holes that reside in a galaxy, should also be considered. Our Milky Way is home to a supermassive black hole that is roughly four million times the mass of the Sun.
Also, one of the largest ever found resides in NGC 4889 (a giant elliptical galaxy located at a distance of 320 million light years). This black hole is about 21 billion times the mass of the Sun.
The galaxies
There are bigger things than supermassive black holes. It is difficult to know which are the largest galaxies, because they do not really have definite boundaries. The largest galaxy ever known is IC 1101, which is 50 times the size of the Milky Way and about 2 00 times more massive. It is approximately 5.5 million light years across.
On the other hand, NGC 604 is a star-forming region located in the Triangle galaxy. It is considered one of the largest galaxies, as it is approximately 1,520 light years in diameter.
Clusters and superclusters
Galaxies are often linked together by clusters. At first glance, astronomers thought these structures were the largest there is. However, in 1980 scientists discovered that galaxy clusters are also connected to each other by superclusters.
The largest known supercluster in the universe is the Great Wall of Hercules-Corona Borealis. It was discovered in 2013 and is currently being studied. It is so large that it takes about 10 billion years for light to move through the structure. By comparison, the universe is only 13.8 billion years old.
