[9] Westerlund also discovered another notable red supergiant, WOH G64, found in the Large Magellanic Cloud in the constellation Dorado.

It also shows huge mass loss of atmospheric material, suggesting that it may further evolve into a hotter supergiant.

The bolometric luminosity of W26 has been calculated from its K-band infrared brightness to be 380,000 or 320,000 times higher than the sun's (L☉), depending on the spectral type between M2 and M5.

The model also gave a photospheric temperature of 3,700 K, corresponding to a radius of 2,519 R☉, leading to a volume 16 billion times bigger than the Sun.

[14][a] In October 2013, astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Survey Telescope (VST) discovered that W26 is surrounded by a glowing cloud of ionized hydrogen.