5. Achernar, the Flattest Star
Found Year: 2003
Who Found It: The Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory
Location: Constellation of Eridanus
Through the dramatically enlarged lens of a telescope, stargazers can view objects in the night sky that are very fantastically magnified. To the unaided eye, the stars they are gazing at may appear circular. Few, if any, are truly completely round, though.
The Achernar Star Is Flattest ©Pablo Carlos Budassi via Wikipedia
Not only is Achernar a non-spherical star in space, but it’s also the flattest star in the Milky Way Galaxy, which has made it famous. The gaseous object appears more like an eclipse than a sphere because of how quickly it spins, flattening out the gas on its surface to the point that its equatorial radius is about 56% larger than its polar radius.
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