Westerlund 1-26 or Wd 1-26 is a red supergiant within the outskirts of the Westerlund 1super star cluster. It is one of the largest known stars discovered so far although its radius is uncertain but is calculated to be either, with a possible but very unlikely upper estimate of, corresponding to a volume between 3.58–16.58 billion times bigger than the Sun. Assuming the upper estimate is correct, if placed at the center of the Solar System, its photosphere would engulf the orbit of Saturn.
Discovery
Westerlund 1 was discovered by Bengt Westerlund in 1961 during an infrared survey in the Zone of Avoidance of the sky, and described as "a heavily reddened cluster in Ara". The spectral types of the component stars could not be determined at the time except for the brightest star which was tentatively considered type M. In 1969, Borgman, Kornneef, and Slingerland conducted a photometric survey of the cluster and assigned letters to the stars they measured. This star, identified as a strong radio source, was given the letter "A". This leads to the designation Westerlund-1 BKS A used at Simbad, although the cluster was not known as Westerlund 1 at that time. At the time it was referred to as Ara A, with another strong radio source in the cluster called Ara C. Its brightness in the radio spectrum makes it one of the rare "radio stars". Westerlund made spectroscopic observations of the cluster, still not known as Westerlund 1, published in 1987 and numbered the stars, giving the number 26 and the spectral type M2I. Westerlund also discovered another notable red supergiant, WOH G64, found in the Large Magellanic Cloud in the constellation Dorado. Modern terminology stems from 1998 when the cluster was referred to as Westerlund 1, with a paper describing Ara A as star 26 and Ara C as star 9.
Physical characteristics
Westerlund 1-26 is classified as an extremely luminous and cool supergiant. It occupies the upper right corner of the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram. The cool temperature means it emits a significant part of its energy in the infrared spectrum. It also shows huge mass loss of atmospheric material, suggesting that it may further evolve into a hotter supergiant. Westerlund 1-26 has been observed to change its spectral class during several periods, but it has not been seen to change its luminosity. The star is almost obscured at visible wavelengths by extinction of around 13 magnitudes due to interstellar dust, hence it has been studied extensively in the longer infrared to radio wavelengths, which made it easier to study. Its spectral type identifies it a red star with a high luminosity. The bolometric luminosity of Westerlund 1-26 has been calculated from its K-band infrared brightness to be between 320,000 and 380,000 times higher than the sun's, depending on the spectral type between M2 and M5. These luminosities imply a radius between 1,530 and 1,580 times the Sun's radius based on effective temperatures of 3,450 and 3,660 K for spectral types M5 and M2 respectively. These parameters make Westerlund 1-26 one of most luminousred supergiants and are also similar to those estimated for another notable red supergiant star, VY Canis Majoris. An earlier calculation of the luminosity by fitting the spectral energy distribution gave a luminosity of just over, which corresponds to a very large radius of and is considerably more luminous than expected for any red supergiant and extreme. In October 2013, astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Survey Telescope discovered that Westerlund 1-26 is surrounded by a glowing cloud of ionized hydrogen. This is the first ionized nebula to have been discovered around a red supergiant star through its optical emission lines, and follows the discovery of an ionized nebula around NML Cyg in 1982. The nebula extends 1.30 parsecs from the star.
