giant star

noun

1. a star having a diameter of from 10 to 100 times that of the sun, as Arcturus or Aldebaran.

giant star

noun

1. See supergiant
   any of a class of stars, such as Capella and Arcturus, that have swelled and brightened considerably as they approach the end of their life, their energy supply having changed Sometimes shortened togiant Compare supergiant

giant star

1. A very large, bright non-main-sequence star that burns hydrogen at a much faster rate than a dwarf star. Giant stars are much more luminous and have shorter lifespans than the slower-burning dwarfs. The larger the giant, the shorter its lifespan; the largest stars, with solar mass of around 100, blaze at several hundred thousand times the energy of the Sun and will last only a few million years, a very brief time when compared with the Sun's 10-billion-year lifespan. Giant stars usually end their lives as supernovae , but even before that event the immense ultraviolet radiation they produce has a dramatic impact on their stellar surroundings; the presence of a giant star in a star system prevents the formation of new protostars because the radiation from the giant star breaks apart any nearby nebulae.

Word History and Origins

Origin of giant star¹

First recorded in 1910–15

Example Sentences

Based on research models, Nomoto and other astronomers predicted that the best candidates for an electron-capture supernova were red giant stars.

From Popular-Science

In 1987, a giant star exploded right next to our own Milky Way galaxy.

From Quanta Magazine

A food giant star turning the tables on his former industry.

From The Daily Beast

The clouds thinned, broke apart, and the giant star looked down upon the land with its cold, blue light.

From Project Gutenberg

Its diameter is more than five hundred times that of our own sun and nearly twice that of the giant star Betelgeuze in Orion.

From Project Gutenberg

Soon the giant star of which it was a planet loomed enormous.

From Project Gutenberg