• Question: if W26 is the largest star that has been mapped (1600 bigger than the sun) what is the smallest?

    Asked by simone2001 to Nick, Lilly, Deepak, Alan on 18 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Alan Fitzsimmons

      Alan Fitzsimmons answered on 18 Mar 2014:

      I’m not sure what you mean by “mapped”. If you mean “discovered”, then the smallest normal stars are called red dwarfs. The smallest ones are only 8% of the size of our Sun.

      If by “mapped” you mean can we see what’s on the stars surface, then yes, scientists have also mapped the surfaces of red dwarf stars. We can see giant starspots on their surfaces, bigger than sunspots on our Sun.

      The closest star to us apart from the Sun is a red dwarf called Proxima Centauri. It is just over 4 light years from our Solar system.

    • Photo: Nick Wright

      Nick Wright answered on 19 Mar 2014:

      The smallest stars we have ever discovered our red dwarfs and brown dwarfs, some of which can get so small that they’re not much bigger than the biggest planets we’ve ever discovered. In fact sometimes its hard to tell the difference. We can map the surfaces of the closest of these stars by studying their star-spots and watching them rotate, but its tricky to do.

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