November 21, 1921 – The Quebec Chronicle

New Discovery Of Giant Stars

Chicago – Discovery of the existence of greater stars than Betelgeuse, the giant star, whose diameter was measured as 3,000,000 miles, was announced by Prof. Albert A. Michelson, in an address before the convention of the National Academy of Sciences, made public today.

Antares, a star in the constellation of Scorpio, was named as one of the super-stars, but its exact size has not yet been determined, he said. Other stars whose magnitude may surpass either of these are to be measured, he said, by means of the new interferometer, developed by Dr. Michelson.

Note from Lorie: In recognition of his development of precision measurement techniques using the interferometer, Michelson, an American physicist, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1907. Interferometers are now widely used for spectroscopy, the study of thin films, the testing of precision optics, measurements of refractive indices and both radio and optical astronomy. (Source – Scientific American)

The star Betelgeuse, measured by Michelson in 1920, is currently considered to be the 11th-brightest star in the night sky. The largest known star in the universe is UY Scuti, a hypergiant with a radius around 1,700 times larger than the sun. If UY Scuti replaced the sun in the center of the solar system, its photosphere would extend just beyond the orbit of Jupiter. (Source – space.com)