• Question: What is a white giant

    Asked by 432xygg36 to Gavin, Mark on 9 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Mark Kennedy

      Mark Kennedy answered on 9 Nov 2016:

      I’m not 100% sure!

      I know of red giants (which are stars that have expanded to very, very big sizes, and have a cool surface temperature so that they look red) and I know of blue hypergiants, which are giant stars that are incredibly hot, but I’ve never heard of a white giant before.

      If I were to guess, I think they’re probably related to the blue hypergiants – they’re really massive stars with a very high surface temperature (since really, really hot things look blue/white to us).

    • Photo: Gavin Coleman

      Gavin Coleman answered on 10 Nov 2016:

      Not something I study I’m afraid, so I’ll have to leave you to Mark’s answer 😀

Comments