Westerlund 1 is a galactic factory of epic proportions. Visible from Earth's Southern Hemisphere just below the tail of the Scorpion — and close to the core of the Milky Way — it's the largest known star cluster in our galaxy.
It's the ultimate example of a "super star cluster." While most such clusters are about 10,000 times the sun's mass, Westerlund 1 is 50,000 to 100,000 times the solar mass. Some of its hundreds of very massive stars are 2,000 times larger than our sun. If they were in the solar system, they would reach as far as the orbit of Saturn and shine 1 million times brighter than the sun. If Earth orbited a star within Westerlund 1, our night sky would be full of hundreds of stars as bright as the full moon.
Source: www.livescience.com
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