It would be nice if there were a discussion about the Eddington Limit as these massive star findings challenge star formation theories and the understanding of how massive a star can be.

Wait... I see Brady everywhere... Numberphile, Periodic Videos, Sixty Symbols, now this??

Yes, size is not equal to mass. When the "star engine" runs out of gas (mass) it begins to swell, since there is not enough gravity to contain the nuclear fision on it's nucleous. VY is a hypergiant reaching the end of it's life, whilst a1 still has plenty of fuel left.

I really need to get down to the Southern Hemisphere to observe the night sky

title should be "Most Massive Star In the KNOWN Universe"

I fucking love astronomy.

You can't make a statement that this is the largest star in the universe.

Now please explain. How could these massive stars come into being and even more, so close to each other? How short will they live and what could we see of their demise?

Small correction - the brightest star known to us is Pistol Start. Sirius is the brigthest on our sky only :)

Your comment, I feel, demonstrates ljarabek's point perfectly: no one knows. The title implies that we have observed all the stars in the universe and know this to be the most massive, which just isn't true. An alternative title could have been, "The most massive star ever observed."

hugh mungus

I'd like someone to make a photo, like the astronomer described, of the Tarantula Nebula as large as it would appear in the sky if it where as close as the Orion Nebula.