VY Canis Majoris is the largest known star and also one of the brightest. It is 1800-2100 solar radii in radius, or about 3 billion km in diameter. It is over 4,900 light-years from Earth.
It is relatively unique when it comes to stars in that it is a single star, rather than multiple star systems, which would be more common for its size.
VY Canis Majoris is so large, that if an airplane traveling 900 km/h were to circle it, it would take over 1100 years to make one journey!
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