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 For years, scientists have struggled to understand how changes in chemical composition at the core of a red giant connect to shifts seen at the surface. Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 21 Feb. 2026 Then, about four to five billion years later, our Sun will run out of hydrogen fuel in its core, evolving into a red giant. Big Think, 20 Feb. 2026 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 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
  • The shedding creates a region of dust and gas around the star’s core — a white dwarf.
    Avni Trivedi, CNN Money, 8 June 2026
  • This would trigger explosive outbursts on the white dwarf, which would be seen across the galaxy as a nova eruption.
    Keith Cooper, Space.com, 3 June 2026
Noun
  • The lunar disk will appear to draw closer to the red light of Antares as the pair track a low arc over the southern horizon, before finally setting at sunrise on May 31, with the red star having transitioned to the top of the silver moon.
    Anthony Wood, Space.com, 29 May 2026
  • 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
Noun
  • Then in the future, when the binary star component enters the red giant phase, long after the outer star has become a compact white dwarf, the mass transfer could begin again in the opposite direction, with matter falling onto the surface of the white dwarf.
    Keith Cooper, Space.com, 3 June 2026
  • Granted, this series has moving parts beyond its binary stars.
    Steven Louis Goldstein, New York Times, 18 Apr. 2026
Noun
  • Since then, along with its fellow detectors Virgo and KAGRA, LIGO has detected gravitational waves from many mergers between pairs of black holes, pairs of ultra-dense neutron stars — and even mixed mergers between a black hole and a neutron star.
    Robert Lea, Space.com, 1 June 2026
  • Gamma rays are the most energetic type of light rays, typically marking the last gasp of a dying star or the cataclysmic clap of two neutron stars.
    Quanta Magazine, Quanta Magazine, 6 May 2026
Noun
  • As a result, the exploit can decrement the variable an arbitrary number of times and then delete and free the chain when some objects still point to it.
    Dan Goodin, ArsTechnica, 9 June 2026
  • The other variable is the war in Iran.
    Eva Roytburg, Fortune, 8 June 2026
Noun
  • For really distant stars, Cepheid variable stars are used.
    Mike Lynch, Twin Cities, 24 May 2026
  • 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
Noun
  • Both the white dwarf and the red dwarf have their own intrinsic magnetic fields.
    Keith Cooper, Space.com, 2 June 2026
  • Scientists first observed the planet in 2019, when the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite caught a glimpse of L 98-59 d passing in front of the red dwarf star at the center of its system.
    K. R. Callaway, Scientific American, 11 May 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 13 Jun. 2026.

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