red giant

Definition of red giantnext

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of red giant As the red giant expels gas, the white dwarf pulls in this material until enough accumulates on its surface to trigger a thermonuclear explosion. Jamie Carter, Forbes.com, 27 Jan. 2026 Orion’s brightest stars are Rigel, which marks one of the hunter’s knees, and the red giant star Betelgeuse at his armpit. Mike Lynch, Twin Cities, 28 Dec. 2025 The process of expending off energy makes a dying star what's called a red giant, before the white dwarf remains. Keith Matheny, Freep.com, 11 Dec. 2025 To locate it, look southward during winter evenings; the belt points downward towards Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, and upward toward Aldebaran, a red giant in Taurus. Hana Al-Khodairi, Condé Nast Traveler, 17 June 2025 See All Example Sentences for red giant
Recent Examples of Synonyms for red giant
Noun
  • In the center is a white dwarf, the dense, compact core of a dying star.
    Adam Kovac, Scientific American, 24 Apr. 2026
  • Morgan Giese, a physics and astronomy PhD candidate at Western, discovered the buckyballs are mostly surrounding the white dwarf in their own shell.
    Elizabeth Howell, Space.com, 23 Apr. 2026
Noun
  • But with patience and a spirit of exploration, each step reveals a surprise: tiny red stars, minute purple pinpoints, a wash of pink-white across a creek.
    Alissa Greenberg, Mercury News, 13 Apr. 2026
  • Discovered in 1999, this small red star has no fewer than seven rocky planets in its habitable zone.
    Joanna Thompson, Space.com, 28 Mar. 2026
Noun
  • Using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, researchers imaged the binary star system AFGL 4106, which sits at the heart of a dusty orange cocoon.
    Daisy Dobrijevic, Space.com, 24 Feb. 2026
  • Situated some 3,000 light-years away in the constellation Corona Borealis is a binary star system poised for a rare thermonuclear display.
    Michael d'Estries, Travel + Leisure, 15 Feb. 2026
Noun
  • Once a star dies, there are a number of possible fates that can ensue as well, as a stellar corpse can remain as a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole.
    Big Think, Big Think, 14 Apr. 2026
  • While the outer layers of a star explode outward, the innermost layers plunge inward, funneling a fraction of the star’s mass into the black hole (or neutron star if the star’s mass is too small).
    ArsTechnica, ArsTechnica, 1 Apr. 2026
Noun
  • But after a long conversation with the guard Saturday, Redick said the most important variable is the player’s confidence.
    Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 28 Apr. 2026
  • The statute of limitations is another critical variable in this equation.
    Angelica Leicht, CBS News, 23 Apr. 2026
Noun
  • Bradley Schaefer, an astronomer at Louisiana State University, focuses on cataclysmic variable stars, objects that vary in brightness over time due to some type of major turmoil.
    Liz Kruesi, Quanta Magazine, 2 Feb. 2026
  • In another imaging campaign, API, assisted by AMIGO, was able to produce detailed images of a black hole jet, the volcanic surface of Jupiter's moon Io, and stellar winds emanating from a distant variable star.
    Tereza Pultarova, Space.com, 5 Nov. 2025
Noun
  • The Jupiter-esque planet known as TOI-5205 b is the first exoplanet of its kind with an atmosphere containing far fewer heavy elements than similarly sized objects, as well as its own red dwarf star.
    Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 2 Apr. 2026
  • The research team, led by Yilen Gómez Maqueo Chew of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, detected a transit signal in the light curve of the star TOI-1080, an inactive M4V-type red dwarf.
    Bojan Stojkovski, Interesting Engineering, 16 Mar. 2026
Noun
  • Even though novas are exceptionally bright, supernovas are brighter—reaching billions of times brighter than the sun at their peak.
    Elizabeth Gamillo, Smithsonian Magazine, 3 July 2025
  • To get a separate measure of how unusual this is, the researchers placed 8 million novas around the center of the galaxy, with the distribution being random but biased to match the galaxy's brightness under the assumption that novas will be more frequent in areas with more stars.
    John Timmer, Ars Technica, 27 Sep. 2024

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Cite this Entry

“Red giant.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/red%20giant. Accessed 2 May. 2026.

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