P5_4 What if Earth orbited VY Canis Majoris.

Abstract

In this paper we explore what would happen to the Earth if the Sun were replaced by one of the largest stars ever discovered, VY Canis Majoris, such that it has the same angular diameter in the sky as our current Sun does. We find the Earth would orbit the star at 1420 ± 120 AU, with an orbital period of 13,000 ± 3, 500 years. Earth would have an effective temperature of −120 ± 8.7°C, but factoring in the greenhouse effect the real temperature would be −35 ± 2.3 °C, thus we would most likely expect Earth, in this system, to be non-habitable.