supergiant
/ˈsuːpədʒʌɪənt
/noun Astronomy
A very large star that is even brighter than a giant, often despite being relatively cool.It was suggested that the red supergiant orbited a companion star that had shredded its outer layers just before the explosion....
- This new heat supply causes the outer layers of the star to expand and cool, and the star becomes a red giant, or a red supergiant if it is very massive.
- In fact, it has become the coolest supergiant star ever found and all because of a single observation made by a dedicated amateur astronomer in Australia.