The size of VY Canis Majoris

Verification: Approximately, if “size” means radius (and therefore diameter) and one uses an estimate near 1,420 solar radii. An interferometric study estimated VY CMa’s radius at 1,420 ± 120 R☉, but its properties have been revised over time because of uncertainties in distance and its surrounding envelope. “1,500 times larger” should be understood as a linear size, not mass or volume; the estimate has substantial uncertainty.

Conclusion: VY Canis Majoris is an enormous red hypergiant; a radius around 1,400–1,500 solar radii is plausible, not an exact constant.