Astronomers have discovered that a massive star known as the Peony Nebula star ranks as the second-brightest in our Milky Way galaxy. The astronomers estimate that the star shines 3.2 million times as brightly as our sun, which is enough to get it a galactic silver medal; the brightest star ever detected is Eta Carinae, which is 4.7 million times brighter than our own little star.
The Peony nebula star... doesn't look all that bright to the naked eye. Sirius is still the undisputed local champion, based on what we can see in the night sky. But a big factor behind Sirius' apparent brightness is its relative proximity to Earth - a mere 8.7 light-years, or roughly 50 trillion miles [MSNBC]. In contrast, the Peony Nebula star lies about
26,000 light-years away, in the dusty heart of the Milky Way. In their upcoming report in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, ...
