Pistol Star
Template:Short description Template:Starbox begin Template:Starbox image Template:Starbox observe Template:Starbox character Template:Starbox astrometry Template:Starbox detail Template:Starbox catalog Template:Starbox reference Template:Starbox end
The Pistol Star (or V4647 Sagittarii) is an extremely luminous blue hypergiant star, one of the most luminous and massive known stars in the Milky Way. It is one of many massive young stars in the Quintuplet Cluster in the Galactic Center region. The star owes its name to the shape of the Pistol Nebula, which it illuminates. It is located approximately 25,000 light-years from Earth in the direction of Sagittarius. The star is massive, estimated to be either 27.5 or roughly 90 times as massive as the Sun (Template:Solar mass), and luminous, with a luminosity 1.7 million times that of the Sun (Template:Solar luminosity). It would be visible to the naked eye as a 4th-magnitude star if it were not for the interstellar dust near the Galactic Center of the Milky Way that absorbs almost all of its visible light. The name Pistol Star was officially added to the IAU Catalog of Star Names on 22 March 2026.[1]
Properties
The Pistol Star was discovered using the Hubble Space Telescope in the early 1990s by Don Figer,[2] an astronomer at UCLA. The star is thought to have ejected almost 10 solar masses of material in giant outbursts perhaps 4,000 to 6,000 years ago (as observed from Earth). Its stellar wind is over 10 billion times stronger than the Sun's. Its exact age and future are not known, but it is expected to end in a brilliant supernova or pair-instability supernova in 1 to 3 million years. The mass is equally uncertain, thought to have been up to 200 times the Sun when initially formed but now considerably less due to extreme mass loss.[3] Modelling the star itself to match its spectrum gives a mass of Template:Solar mass,[4] while matching its current properties to an evolutionary model gives a much higher mass (Template:Solar mass).[5] Earlier studies once claimed the Pistol Star as the most massive star known at around Template:Solar mass.[6]
.jpg)
Later studies have reduced its estimated luminosity making it a candidate luminous blue variable about Template:Solar luminosity (one third as luminous as the binary star system Eta Carinae), hence a radius of Template:Solar radius based on an effective temperature around Template:Val,[4] or as high as Template:Solar luminosity, hence a correspondingly larger radius of Template:Solar radius.[7]Template:Efn[8] One 2026 publication determined its luminosity to be Template:Solar luminosity, which together with an effective temperature of 11,800 K, implies a radius around Template:Solar radius calculator.[9]Template:Efn Assuming the larger radius, if the Pistol Star were placed in the center of the Solar System, its surface would lie beyond the orbit of Mars. It radiates about as much energy in 20 seconds as the Sun does in a year.Template:Citation needed
A close point source has been discovered hidden in the surrounding nebulosity, but there has been no confirmation of this being a star or whether it is physically associated.[10]
See also
Notes
References
External links
- Template:Cite press release
- Template:Cite web
- Template:Cite news
- Template:Cite journal
- Template:Cite web
Template:Stars of Sagittarius Template:Portal bar
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite journal
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs named "najarro". - ↑ Template:Cite journal
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs named "martayaneso". - ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs named "ryan". - ↑ Template:Cite journal
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs named "Bernini-Peron2026". - ↑ Template:Cite journal