giant star

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Related to giant star: red giant star, Supergiant Star

giant star

Any of several classes of highly luminous stars that are very massive, very large, or both.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

giant star

(Astronomy) 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 to: giant Compare supergiant

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

gi′ant star′

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

[1910–15]

gi·ant star

(jī′ənt)

A very large, very bright star having high mass and low density.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Noun

giant star - a very bright star of large diameter and low density (relative to the Sun)

giant

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

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References in periodicals archive ?

According to the space agencies, NGC 2022 is a red giant star. Massive stars or those that are like the Sun enter this stage when they can no longer convert hydrogen into helium inside their cores.

NASA's Hubble Snaps Photo Of Jellyfish Star In Space

Beijing-Chinese astronomers have discovered the most lithium-rich giant star ever known, which could shed new light on the evolution of the universe.With 3,000 times more lithium than a normal star, it was found in the direction of Ophiuchus, on the north side of the galactic disk, at a distance of 4,500 light years from Earth, reports Xinhua news agency.The star has a mass almost 1.5 times our sun.A composite image of the supernova 1E0102.2-7219 contains X-rays from Chandra (blue and purple), visible light data from VLT's MUSE instrument (bright red), and additional data from Hubble (dark red and green).

Lithium-rich giant star discovered

Summary: TEHRAN (FNA)- An international team of astronomers has produced the first detailed images of the surface of a giant star outside our solar system, revealing a nearly circular, dust-free atmosphere with complex areas of moving material, known as convection cells or granules, according to a recent study.

Astronomers Produce First Detailed Images of Surface of Giant Star

RESIDENTS of Qatar and the Arab world will be able to witness a rare celestial event, when the orange giant star 'Aldebaran' will move very close to the moon twice in December, Qatar Calendar House (QCH) announced on Thursday.

Moon & orange star to cometogether on December 3 & 31

SUPERCOOL Alexey Kuznin, 19, poses on a giant star and even pretends to take a nap at the top of a 512ft skyscraper he climbed using only a rope.

High there... you're a star

ISLAMABAD -- Chilean astronomer Maritza Soto has discovered a planet three times as large as Jupiter orbiting a red giant star larger than the Sun and located some 290 million light years from Earth.

Planet three times as large as Jupiter discovered

In about five billion years our Sun will become a red giant star, swelling to immense proportions and engulfing Mercury and Venus.

Star set to swallow two exoplanets in 130 million and 155 million years

Budding astronomers can gaze up at the night sky and try to spot the likes of the Orion Nebula where stars are created, the Antromeda Galaxy and Belelgeux - a red giant star 700 times the size of the sun.

Chance to explore the night sky

The binary system usually consists of a white dwarf and a red giant star. If these two stars are close enough, material from the red giant star can be pulled off its surface and onto the white dwarf.

A Bright Nova in Delphinus (the Dolphin)

Symbiotic stars are widely separated, long orbital period interacting binary stars consisting of a late-type giant star and a hot compact companion, usually a white dwarf.

Eclipse comparisons of the symbiotic nova V1413 Aql from visual photometry

They discovered that a rare type of giant star, often overlooked by astronomers, could make an excellent signpost for distances up to 300,000,000 light-years--and beyond.