Rho Cassiopeiae is a yellow hypergiant star in the constellation Cassiopeia. It is about 3,400 light-years (1,000 pc) from Earth, yet can still be seen by the naked eye as it is over 300,000 times brighter than the Sun. On average it has an absolute magnitude of −9.5, making it visually one of the most luminous stars known. Its diameter measures between 636 and 981 times that of the Sun, approximately 1,125,000,000 kilometers, or almost four times the size of Earth's orbit.

A yellow hypergiant (YHG) is a massive star with an extended atmosphere, a spectral class from A to K, and, starting with an initial mass of about 20–60 solar masses, has lost as much as half that mass. They are amongst the most visually luminous stars, with absolute magnitude (MV) around −9, but also one of the rarest, with just 20 known in the Milky Way and six of those in just a single cluster. They are sometimes referred to as cool hypergiants in comparison with O- and B-type stars, and sometimes as warm hypergiants in comparison with red supergiants.