Pistol Star

Common card · No. 288809

The Pistol Star (or V4647 Sagittarii) is an extremely luminous blue hypergiant star, one of the most luminous and massive known stars in the Milky Way. It is one of many massive young stars in the Quintuplet Cluster in the Galactic Center region. The star owes its name to the shape of the Pistol Nebula, which it illuminates. It is located approximately 25,000 light-years from Earth in the direction of Sagittarius. The star is massive, estimated to be either 27.5 or roughly 90 times as massive as the Sun (M☉), and luminous, with a luminosity 1.7 million times that of the Sun (L☉). It would be visible to the naked eye as a 4th-magnitude star if it were not for the interstellar dust near the Galactic Center of the Milky Way that absorbs almost all of its visible light. The name Pistol Star was officially added to the IAU Catalog of Star Names on 22 March 2026.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Don F. Figer (UCLA) and NASA, Public domain