Sirius, in the constellation Canis Major, outshines every other star we see at night. Planets such as Venus can look brighter, but among stars Sirius wins.
It sits only about 8.6 light-years away, which is close on a galactic scale, and it is genuinely luminous — a hot white star with a faint white-dwarf companion, Sirius B.
Brightness in the sky is not the same as size. Sirius looks king of the night because it is both nearby and powerful, not because it is the largest star in the galaxy.
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