British astronomers have discovered the biggest star ever seen in the universe - a whopping 250 times the mass of the sun.,br> Using the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Very Large Telescope which is located in in Chile they say the star R136a1 is a massive find, in more ways than one. The gargantuan star is said to shine millions of times brighter than the sun, burn seven times hotter and goes beyond what was thought to be physically possible.Spotted in the R136 cluster around one hundred thousand light years away it is twice the size of any object ever seen -- which makes you wonder how they missed it for so long. Paul Crowther, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Sheffield, said: Unlike humans, these stars are born heavy and lose weight as they age.Being a little over a million years old, the most extreme star R136a1 is already middle-aged and has undergone an intense weight loss programme, shedding a fifth of its initial mass over that time, or more than fifty solar masses.
