UY Scuti is a very luminous Supergiant Star type star. UY Scuti is not part of the Scutum constellation outline but is within the borders of the constellation. Based on the spectral type (M4Ia-Iab) of the star, the star’s colour is red. The star can not be seen by the naked eye, you need a telescope to see it.
UY Scuti is located a few degrees north of the A-type star Gamma Scuti and northeast of the Eagle Nebula. Although the star is very luminous, it is, at its brightest, only 9th magnitude as viewed from Earth, due to its distance and location in the Zone of Avoidance within the Cygnus rift.
Discovered by German astronomers in 1860, UY Scuti is located in the Scutum constellation, about 9,500 light-years from Earth. It’s a pulsating star that swells and shrinks periodically, usually shining about 400,000 times brighter than our Sun.
What is the brightest star in the Scuti constellation?
Scutum does not have any stars brighter than magnitude 3.00 or located within 10 parsecs (32.6 light years) of Earth. The brightest star in the constellation is Alpha Scuti, with an apparent magnitude of 3.85. The nearest star is LHS 3398 (spectral class M1V), located at a distance of 41.54 light years from Earth.
Then, what are the neighboring constellations of Scutum?
An answer is that the neighboring constellations are Aquila, Sagittarius and Serpens Cauda. Scutum does not have any stars brighter than magnitude 3.00 or located within 10 parsecs (32.6 light years) of Earth. The brightest star in the constellation is Alpha Scuti, with an apparent magnitude of 3.85.
How far away is UY Scuti?
Situated in the Milky Way galaxy in the Scutum constellation, UY Scuti is 5.100 light-years away from us. It is situated just northeast of the famous Eagle Nebula (Messier 16). Also home to the famous Delta Scuti variable star, the Scutum constellation contains many relatively bright deep-sky objects that are quite popular targets among stargazers.