Hubble Telescope Snaps Sparkly Photo of Hypergiant Star's Home

Located about 15,000 light-years away, Westerlund 1 is the cosmic home of the giant star Westerlund 1-26, a monster red supergiant star (also known as a hypergiant). "If Westerlund 1-26 were placed where our sun is in our solar system, it would extend out beyond the orbit of Jupiter," NASA officials wrote. At around 3 million years old, the Westerlund 1 cluster is a young collection of stars when compared to our own sun which is roughly 4.6 billion years old.