RED GIANT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does red giant mean? 

• RED GIANT (noun)
  The noun RED GIANT has 1 sense:

1. a large, old, luminous star; has a relatively low surface temperature and a diameter large relative to the sun

  Familiarity information: RED GIANT used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RED GIANT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A large, old, luminous star; has a relatively low surface temperature and a diameter large relative to the sun

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

red giant; red giant star

Hypernyms ("red giant" is a kind of...):

star ((astronomy) a celestial body of hot gases that radiates energy derived from thermonuclear reactions in the interior)

 Context examples 

A star like our Sun will, at the end of its life, transform into a red giant.

(Hubble Views Final Stages of a Star’s Life, ESA/NASA)

The star is a bloated red giant, residing 1,200 light-years away, which has probably shed at least half of its mass into space during its death throes.

(Hubble Detects Giant 'Cannonballs' Shooting from Star, NASA)

Our Sun will swell to become a similar red giant star in about five billion years.

(Giant Bubbles on Red Giant Star’s Surface, ESO)

The Saturn Nebula was originally a low-mass star, which expanded into a red giant at the end of its life and began to shed its outer layers.

(The Strange Structures of the Saturn Nebula, ESO)

KELT-9 will swell to become a red giant star in a few hundred million years.

(Astronomers reveal discovery of the hottest gas giant exoplanet known yet, Wikinews)

The astronomers also determined that the two stars that merged were of relatively low mass, one being a red giant star with a mass somewhere between 0.8 and 2.5 times that of our Sun.

(Stellar Corpse Reveals Origin of Radioactive Molecules, ESO)

According to the researchers, the exoplanet now found with the help of ESO’s X-shooter orbits the white dwarf at a distance of only 10 million kilometres, or 15 times the solar radius, which would have been deep inside the red giant.

(First Giant Planet around White Dwarf Found, ESO)

The planet’s host star, WASP-127, is also lithium rich, which could point to an AGB star – a bright red giant thousands of times brighter than the sun – or a supernova having enriched the cloud of material from which this system originated.

(Multiple metals – and possible signs of water – found in unique exoplanet, University of Cambridge)

One known source of cosmic dust is AGB stars, or stars with about the mass of the Sun that are running out of fuel and puff up to many times their original size to form a red giant star. (AGB stars are one type of red giant star.)

(Exploding Stars Make Key Ingredient in Sand, Glass, NASA)

After that, all that remains of the star is what we see here: glowing outer layers surrounding a white dwarf star, the remnants of the red giant star’s core.

(Hubble Views Final Stages of a Star’s Life, ESA/NASA)