red supergiant

American  

[red soo-per-jahy-uhnt] / ˈrɛd ˈsu pərˌdʒaɪ ənt /

noun

plural

red supergiants

1. Astronomy. a supergiant star with relatively low surface temperature and light that appears reddish.

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red supergiant Scientific  

1. An extremely large red giant star with a minimum of 15 solar masses. The best known red supergiant is Betelgeuse, with a luminosity about 10,000 times that of the Sun. When a supergiant collapses into a supernova, it may result in either a neutron star or a black hole.

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Other Word Forms

• red-supergiant
  adjective

Example Sentences

"The infrared wavelengths of our observations overlap with an important silicate dust feature that's characteristic of some red supergiant spectra," Kilpatrick said.

From Science Daily • Oct. 9, 2025

That's the red supergiant Betelgeuse - one of the largest dying stars in the Milky Way!

From Space Scoop • Aug. 20, 2025

The star is Betelgeuse, a red supergiant in the constellation Orion.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 8, 2023

One of the closest candidates of this size is the red supergiant Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion, located at a safe distance of about 150 parsecs from our solar system.

From Science Daily • Nov. 2, 2023

“We think it was quite a complicated merger,” Shenar says—one that possibly involved a helium-rich lower mass star spiraling into the puffy stellar atmosphere of an accompanying red supergiant.

From Scientific American • Aug. 17, 2023