One of the largest stars in this constellation is Antares, which is a super red giant. For the Sun, the main-sequence lifetime is approximately 10 billion years. When the ascent of the red-giant branch ends they puff off their outer layers much like a post-asymptotic-giant-branch star and then become a white dwarf. Credit: Tyrogthekreeper . Luminosity and temperature steadily increase during this time, just as for more-massive main-sequence stars, but the length of time involved means that the temperature eventually increases by about 50% and the luminosity by around 10 times. A very high-mass star will oscillate between different supergiant stages as it fuses heavier and heavier elements in its core. Red hypers generally have a shorter life span than other stars. At that point, a star is said to have moved off the main sequence. When hydrogen fuel at the centre of a star is exhausted, nuclear reactions will start move outwards into its atmosphere and burn the hydrogen thats in a shell surrounding the core. [25], The Sun will exit the main sequence in approximately 5 billion years and start to turn into a red giant. Stars go through specific steps throughout their lives. During the… The star at the top of the cross is Gamma Crucis, which is a red giant. At that point, the core is primarily iron (which takes more energy to fuse than the star has) and the core can no longer sustain outward radiation pressure, and it begins to collapse. These become cool helium white dwarfs. The ejection of the outer mass and the creation of a planetary nebula finally ends the red-giant phase of the star's evolution. The growth in planet mass could be partly due to accretion from stellar wind, although a much larger effect would be Roche lobe overflow causing mass-transfer from the star to the planet when the giant expands out to the orbital distance of the planet. These giant stars are huge and bright. Near the end of this second red-giant phase, the star loses its extended envelope in a catastrophic event, leaving behind a dense, hot, and luminous core surrounded by a glowing spherical shell. They are different, however. It needs little imagination to make out the shape of a scorpion. The largest red giants, which form from the most massive of stars, are known as red supergiants. Arcturus, another red-orange giant star is located nearly the same distance away as Pollux is from us. However, the masses of the planets that have been found around giant stars do not correlate with the masses of the stars; therefore, the planets could be growing in mass during the stars' red giant phase. The largest and hottest stars in the Universe are these blue giant stars. This is the planetary-nebula phase. They don't start out that way, but as different kinds of stars age, they undergo changes that make them big...and red. It's all part of star life and star death. The star that transforms into a red supergiant does so at a cost. Normally, Betelgeuse is among the 10 brightest stars in the sky. A red giant is a luminous giant star of low or intermediate mass (roughly 0.3–8 solar masses (M☉)) in a late phase of stellar evolution. At this stage, the gravitational force of the star is once again balanced by the immense outward radiation pressure caused by the intense helium fusion taking place in the core. The study of stars is an incredibly interesting pastime. Understanding the difference can deepen your appreciation of astronomy. A huge amount of energy pushes the outer layers of the star outwards and it turns into a red supergiant. atomic number greater than 2). A giant red star is acting weird and scientists think it may be about to explode. The horizontal-branch and asymptotic-giant-branch phases proceed tens of times faster. Two interesting bodies are red and blue giants. [10], When the star exhausts the hydrogen fuel in its core, nuclear reactions can no longer continue and so the core begins to contract due to its own gravity. This is a far more gentle "death" than massive stars discussed above experience when they explode as supernovae. Eventually, it will exhaust all its nuclear fuel that runs the star. A good example of a red supergiant is the star Betelgeuse, in the constellation Orion. A red giant is a luminous giant star of low or intermediate mass (roughly 0.3–8 solar masses (M ☉)) in a late phase of stellar evolution. Red supergiants are among the largest stars in the sky. When Massive Stars Become Red Supergiants, Blue Supergiant Stars: Behemoths of the Galaxies, From Star to White Dwarf: the Saga of a Sun-like Star, Supernovae: Catastrophic Explosions of Giant Stars. The K0 RGB star Arcturus is 36 light-years away, and Gamma Crucis is the nearest M-class giant at 88 light-years' distance. An artist's impression of the red supergiant star VX Sagittarii. It is 25 times bigger than the Sun, and because of its size, it is the 4th brightest star in the night sky. People always want to know if the Sun will become a red supergiant. A Red Giant is a phase or a stage of a star's life when it is still active only except it has now run out of Hydrogen and is now fusing Helium to form Carbon. When that happens, gravity wins. Put the Sun next to a supergiant star and you’ll have a hard time finding it. 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