The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer or VLTI has found a star that is about 1300 times the size of our sun Sol. This hyper giant is the largest yellow star to be found in the galaxy so far. It has been under observation for nearly six decades.

The observers have found it to be a part of a binary system where the second star is so close by that it was missed before. The largest yellow star is about 50% larger than the famous red super giant Betelgeuse. It is being called HR 5171 A by Olivier Chesneau, the researcher at Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, Nice, France.

Chesneau said that new observations also showed that this star has a very close binary partner, which was a real surprise. The two stars are so close that they touch and the whole system resembles a gigantic peanut, he added. Chesneau continued that the companion they had found was 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.

Yellow giants are rare and there are only about 12 known cases in our galaxy, so the observation of HR 5171 A will allow scientists to understand the evolutionary processes of massive stars better. This is going to be a long, ongoing science project.