You feel the vibrations as the rocket lifts off from the launch pad. This cramped spaceship is your home for two years as you journey all the way out to Jupiter, the Solar System's largest planet. It's so far away that when you get there the Sun's light is a mere 1/25th as bright as on Earth.
And yet, if you were to make a journey of the same distance in some planetary systems, you'd still be . These celestial beasts - known as hypergiant stars - are colossal. The biggest can fit 10 billion Suns inside, or 14 quadrillion Earths. Such monsters are rare, but they play a crucial role in seeding the Universe with the rich array of chemistry required to sustain life. Their scarcity means they've been poorly understood in the past, but a run of recent research is giving astronomers unprecedented insights into
