Tucked within our cozy solar system of planets, moons, comets, and more, the sun is a colossal, blinding ball of burning light. It contains 99.86% of the mass in our solar system and is large enough to fit 1.3 million Earths inside of it. Pretty big, right?

And while the sun might dwarf the Earth, in reality, it is miniscule compared to some of the largest stars in our home galaxy, the Milky Way. The most massive star within 10,000 light years from Earth is the largest star of a two-star system called Eta Carinae.

This star is 90 times the mass of our sun and shines five million times brighter. It appears blue to the naked eye because its surface temperature is six times hotter than our sun.

Even larger than Eta Carinae is a star 640 light years from Earth called Betelgeuse. Betelgeuse is the eighth brightest star in the night sky and the second brightest star that makes up the constellation of Orion. On a clear night, you can easily see it with your naked eye.

Astronomers estimate that Betelgeuse is 300 times larger than Eta Carinae. If you replaced our sun with Betelgeuse, the star would swallow the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, reaching out as far as the orbit of Jupiter.