For those of us who care about numbers, VY Canis Majoris, the very last star in that sequence, has a radius that may be 2,600 times that of our sun. The sun is approximately 109 times the radius of the earth. In other words, it would take approximately ( (2,600 x 109) ^ 3 =) 2.28 x 10^16, or 22.8 quadrillion, earths to fill this star's volume. If I remember my high school physics lessons, the earth's mean radius is around 6,400 km. This would give VY Canis Majoris a circumference of (2 * pi * 2,600 * 109 * 6,400 =) 11.4 billion km (if you ignore equatorial bulging due to rotation and whatnot). Very, very roughly put, it would take a beam of light (12 * 10^9 / 3 * 10^5 =) 40,000 seconds, or over 11 hours, to travel around the star.
Beautiful image!
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