HR 5171, the brightest star just below the center of this stunning space wallpaper, is a yellow hypergiant, a very rare type of stars with only a dozen known in our galaxy. Its size is more than 1300 times that of the Sun — one of the ten largest stars found so far. Observations with ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer have shown that it is actually a double star, with the companion in contact with the main star. This image was released March 12, 2014.
Rare Double Star | Space Wallpaper

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