Model Predicts How Milky Way's Largest Star "VY Canis Majoris" Will Die

Three-dimensional models are notoriously challenging to create. But despite how hard they are to develop, experts were able to produce complex models, including black holes. Throughout the history of astronomical studies, these models helped scientists to understand more about the features, origin, and fate of cosmic phenomena.

In new research, scholars from the University of Arizona constructed a new model inspired by the VY Canis Majoris. This object is famous for being the largest red hypergiant and possibly the largest star across the Milky Way galaxy. This model would help us gain more knowledge about the stellar body and the details of its upcoming demise.

How Red Hypergiants Die

(Photo: NASA, ESA, and R. Humphreys (University of Minnesota), and J. Olmsted (STScI))
This artist's impression of hypergiant star VY Canis Majoris shows the star's vast convection cells and violent ejections. VY Canis Majoris is so large that if it replaced the Sun, the star would extend for hundreds of millions of miles between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn.

The science community is currently divided about a dying red hypergiant's true process and outcomes. The most popular theory is that large stars like VY Canis Majoris explode into a supernova, as most stars do.

Other theories suggest they could collapse and eventually turn into a black hole. The only problem with this track is the lack of data and the difficulty of observations required compared to the monitoring of supernovae.

To find out the path that dying large stars take, experts created a model showing what characteristics they have and the activities they possess. The research selected the perfect model for the job, VY Canis Majoris, which also happens near the end of its life.

The VY Canis Majoris scales between 10 to 15 astronomical units (AU), or about 10 to 15 times larger than our massive sun. This star hovers about 3,009 lightyears away from our planet, a perfect distance for scientists to observe.

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Model of VY Canis Majoris Under Construction

The loss of its mass is among the principal changes that commonly occur upon a star's death. During this phase, the gas and dust of the stellar body are being blown out of its photosphere.

VY Canis Majoris has an exclusive set of coronal arcs that are a million times more massive than the sun. Scientists can determine the materials expelled to these regions through Chile's Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescopes. According to Universe Today, the compounds detected through ALMA's radio signals were silicon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and sodium chloride.

The process included all 48 of the ALMA telescopes to collect terabytes worth of data for the precise structure of the hypergiant. The information experts obtained will be presented at the American Astronomical Society, while other details will follow to complete the model of VY Canis Majoris, reports Science Alert.

Further work is needed to look for additional references that will construct an accurate model of the red hypergiant. By testing this simulation, we will know how large stars like the VY Canis Majoris change during the last years of their lives. This model would also guide us to develop models of separate three-dimensional bodies and learn more about them, their birth, and how they die.