Stevenson 2-18

Stevenson 2-18 is a red supergiant star, 19,000 lightyears from our Solar system.^[1] It is found in the Stevenson 2 star cluster, close to the centre of the Milky Way, our galaxy -- a star cluster known to contain many hot, young, massive and very luminous stars.

Stevenson 2-18 is a variable star.^[1] When Astronomers first started to study the cluster, they speculated it might not be a member of the cluster, rather a dimmer star, much closer to Sol, because, if it were part of the group they would need an explanation as to why it was much more luminous than the other bright stars in the group.

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 "10 Billion SUNS: This Star Could Swallow the Entire Solar System". 2026-05-27. Archived from the original on 2026-06-19. Retrieved 2026-06-20 – via YouTube. Some of the largest known stars are not just bigger than the Sun — they are hundreds or even thousands of times wider, millions of times brighter, and powerful enough to reshape the space around them. If one of these stellar monsters were placed at the center of our Solar System, it could stretch far beyond the inner planets and possibly engulf everything up to Jupiter.

[Stevenson-2-18-2026-06-19-1] 1.0 ^1.1 "10 Billion SUNS: This Star Could Swallow the Entire Solar System". 2026-05-27. Archived from the original on 2026-06-19. Retrieved 2026-06-20 – via YouTube. Some of the largest known stars are not just bigger than the Sun — they are hundreds or even thousands of times wider, millions of times brighter, and powerful enough to reshape the space around them. If one of these stellar monsters were placed at the center of our Solar System, it could stretch far beyond the inner planets and possibly engulf everything up to Jupiter.

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