The biggest yellow star found to date belongs to a telescope at the European Southern Observatory in Germany.
The star named HR 5171 A, and dubbed the yellow hyper-giant, illuminates 12,000 light years from planet earth, and is over 1,300 times the measurement of the sun's center Space.com reported.
Both facts also put the star in the top 10 of natural objects scientists have ever found. The HR 5171 A is unique however in that it belongs to an orbit system where two stars travel in the same direction at one time, but on a slightly different path Space.com reported.
"The new observations also showed that this star has a very close binary partner, which was a real surprise," Olivier Chesneau of the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur in France working with the VLT said in a statement Space.com reported. "The two stars are so close that they touch and the whole system resembles a gigantic peanut ... The companion we have found is very significant as it can have an influence on the fate of HR 5171 A, for example, stripping off its outer layers and modifying its evolution," Chesneau said in the statement Space.com reported.
The star is also one out of 12 of its kind that scientists have located in the Milky Way galaxy, which are currently in an unbalanced phase according to the observatory Space.com reported.
Those who look closely enough can see the bright light in the distance even though it is far away, and apparently becoming bigger than it already is.
"HR 5171 A has been found to be getting bigger over the last 40 years, cooling as it grows, and its evolution has now been caught in action," officials from the European Southern Observatory said in a statement Space.com reported. "Only a few stars are caught in this very brief phase, where they undergo a dramatic change in temperature as they rapidly evolve."
