10 IMMENSE THINGS IN SPACE
01 Biggest asteroid
ceres
950km diameter (average) Discovered in 1801, ceres makes up a third of the total mass of the asteroid belt between mars and Jupiter.
02 Biggest object in our solar system
sun
1,392,000km diameter the yellow dwarf star around which we orbit comprises over 99.8 per cent of the total mass of our solar system.
03 Biggest known planet
GQ Lup b
30 times the radius of Jupiter this huge exoplanet, detected orbiting a star some 457 light-years from earth, may have a mass up to 36 times that of Jupiter and is fiercely hot – possibly 2,650 kelvin.
04 Largest structure in the universe
Huge Large Quasar Group (Huge-LQG)
4 billion light-years across in 2013, an international team detected a chain of some 73 quasars stretching so far that its existence challenges the fundamental cosmological Principle.
05 Biggest black hole
centre of ngc 1277
17 billion solar mass this supermassive black hole, at the centre of the nGc 1277 galaxy 220 million light-years away, has a mass 17 billion times greater than our sun – itself about two nonillion kg.
06 Largest galaxy
ic 1101
Six million light-years across this supergiant elliptical galaxy, discovered in 1790 by William Herschel, at the centre of the Abell 2029 cluster is about one billion light-years away. our own galaxy, the milky Way, is a mere 100,000 light-years across.
07 Biggest water cloud Around quasar
APM 08279+5255
40 billion times the mass of earth in 2011, researchers discovered a vast cloud of water vapour surrounding a quasar some 12 billion light-years away. the cloud holds enough water to fill the earth’s oceans 140 trillion times over.
08 Biggest comet
McNaught Visible tail 35° the spacecraft ulysses passed through the tail of this comet in 2007 and detected ionised gas at a distance of 225 million km behind the nucleus. the ‘shocked wind’ behind the comet was larger still, making mcnaught reportedly the largest comet ever discovered.
09 Biggest nothing
boötes Void
250 million lightyears across An area of space containing nearly no objects (though a few galaxies are present), this ‘void’ is around 700 million light-years from earth.
10 Biggest star
Westerlund 1-26
1,530 solar radii measuring distant stars is tricky – determining the edge of the star can be made difficult by solar winds – but the royal Astronomical society believes this red supergiant, which is about 1,000,000,000km across and some 16,000 light-years from earth, is the largest.
06 Largest galaxy
ic 1101
Six million light-years across this supergiant elliptical galaxy, discovered in 1790 by William Herschel, at the centre of the Abell 2029 cluster is about one billion light-years away. our own galaxy, the milky Way, is a mere 100,000 light-years across.
07 Biggest water cloud Around quasar
APM 08279+5255
40 billion times the mass of earth in 2011, researchers discovered a vast cloud of water vapour surrounding a quasar some 12 billion light-years away. the cloud holds enough water to fill the earth’s oceans 140 trillion times over.
08 Biggest comet
McNaught Visible tail 35° the spacecraft ulysses passed through the tail of this comet in 2007 and detected ionised gas at a distance of 225 million km behind the nucleus. the ‘shocked wind’ behind the comet was larger still, making mcnaught reportedly the largest comet ever discovered.
09 Biggest nothing
boötes Void
250 million lightyears across An area of space containing nearly no objects (though a few galaxies are present), this ‘void’ is around 700 million light-years from earth.
10 Biggest star
Westerlund 1-26
1,530 solar radii measuring distant stars is tricky – determining the edge of the star can be made difficult by solar winds – but the royal Astronomical society believes this red supergiant, which is about 1,000,000,000km across and some 16,000 light-years from earth, is the largest.
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