tom moody
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Can't stop watching the video of earth compared to VV Cephei, an enormous star that if placed where our sun is, would be as large as the orbit of Saturn. The popular computer graphic shows earth next to Neptune, Neptune next to Saturn, then Jupiter, the Sun, Sirius, Pollux, Arcturus, etc all the way up to VV Cephei, like a procession of bigger and bigger schoolyard bullies. It's absolutely humbling to think of that of all that size and power. Astronomers say VY Canis Majoris is even larger. By the way, congratulations to Robert Quimby, a grad student working at the McDonald Observatory in West Texas for spotting the largest supernova yet recorded, fortunately in a galaxy 240 million light years away and therefore during the Permian era of our own history. The exploded star was hypothesized to be 100-200 times heavier than our sun.