Red supergiant

File:VX Sagittarii Red Supergiant Star.png

VX Sagittarii is a red supergiant star.

A red supergiant (RSG) is a larger and brighter type of red giant star. Red supergiants are often variable stars. They are between 100 to 1,600 times bigger than the Sun. Examples of a red supergiant star include Antares, 119 Tauri, Betelgeuse, Epsilon Pegasi, and VV Cephei A. Most red supergiant stars explode as supernovae. Some of the brightest become Wolf-Rayet stars before they explode.

Red supergiants are stars are some of the brightest stars. They are also the largest stars in the universe. Betelgeuse and Antares are the brightest and best known red supergiants. They are also the only first magnitude red supergiant stars.

Red Supergiant Media

• Betelgeuse pulsating UV (HST).jpg

  Betelgeuse pulsating and showing spectral line profile changes (HST UV images)

• PESSTO Snaps Supernova in Messier 74.jpg

  A red supergiant ends its life as a type II supernova (bottom left) in a spiral arm of M74

• Ssc2006-03a.jpg

  RSGC1, the first of several massive clusters found to contain multiple red supergiants.

• Orion Head to Toe.jpg

  The Orion region showing the red supergiant Betelgeuse