giant star

American  

noun

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

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giant star British  

noun

1. Sometimes shortened to: giant.  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 Compare supergiant

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giant star Scientific  

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.

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Etymology

Origin of giant star

First recorded in 1910–15

Example Sentences

Researchers have been trying to understand why the chemical makeup at the surface of red giant stars changes as these stars evolve.

From Science Daily

One possibility is that the signal comes from a red giant star, while another idea is that it could be a fading light echo related to the burst itself.

From Science Daily

That is the conclusion of a new study from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, based on close observations of the red giant star R Doradus.

From Science Daily

This newly observed structure helps explain the unusual and long-running changes seen in the giant star's brightness and atmospheric behavior.

From Science Daily

Pulsars—spinning neutron stars left when giant stars blow up in supernova explosions—are well-known astronomical radio beacons.

From Science Magazine