SUPERGIANT

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does supergiant mean? 

• SUPERGIANT (noun)
  The noun SUPERGIANT has 1 sense:

1. an extremely bright star of very large diameter and low density

  Familiarity information: SUPERGIANT used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUPERGIANT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An extremely bright star of very large diameter and low density

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("supergiant" is a kind of...):

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

Instance hyponyms:

Alpha Orionis; Betelgeuse (the second brightest star in Orion)

Canopus (supergiant star 650 light years from Earth; second brightest star in the sky)

 Context examples 

When they analyzed the colors of the light coming from this object, they discovered it was a blue supergiant star.

(Hubble Uncovers the Farthest Star Ever Seen, NASA)

Researchers initially classified the star as elderly, perhaps a red supergiant.

(NASA Team Probes Peculiar Age-Defying Star, NASA)

“Of course, our knowledge of red supergiants remains incomplete, and this is still a work in progress, so a surprise can still happen.”

(ESO Telescope Sees Surface of Dim Betelgeuse, ESO)

While both explosions delivered a similar energetic punch, no shock breakout was seen in the smaller of the supergiants.

(Kepler Catches Early Flash of an Exploding Star, NASA)

Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer astronomers have constructed the most detailed image ever of a star — the red supergiant star Antares.

(Best Ever Image of a Star’s Surface and Atmosphere, ESO)

It is a huge and comparatively cool red supergiant star in the late stages of its life, on the way to becoming a supernova.

(Best Ever Image of a Star’s Surface and Atmosphere, ESO)

Like all red supergiants, Betelgeuse will one day go supernova, but astronomers don’t think this is happening now.

(ESO Telescope Sees Surface of Dim Betelgeuse, ESO)

In 2011, two of these massive stars, called red supergiants, exploded while in Kepler's view.

(Kepler Catches Early Flash of an Exploding Star, NASA)

They reason that a new, currently unknown, process may be needed to explain these movements in the extended atmospheres of red supergiants like Antares.

(Best Ever Image of a Star’s Surface and Atmosphere, ESO)

“Over their lifetimes, red supergiants like Betelgeuse create and eject vast amounts of material even before they explode as supernovae.”

(ESO Telescope Sees Surface of Dim Betelgeuse, ESO)