The red-giant branch (RGB), sometimes called the first giant branch, is the portion of the giant branch before helium ignition occurs in the course of stellar evolution. It is a stage that follows the main sequence for low- to intermediate-mass stars. Red-giant-branch stars have an inert helium core surrounded by a shell of hydrogen fusing via the CNO cycle. They are K- and M-class stars much larger and more luminous than main-sequence stars of the same temperature.
Red giants were identified early in the 20th century when the use of the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram made it clear that there were two distinct types of cool stars with very different sizes: dwarfs, now formally known as the main sequence; and giants.
The term red-giant branch came into use during the 1940s and 1950s, although initially just as a general term to refer to the red-giant region of the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram. Although the basis of a thermonuclear main-sequence lifetime, followed by a thermodynamic contraction phase to a white dwarf was understood by 1940, the internal details of the various types of giant stars were not known.
In 1968, the name asymptotic giant branch (AGB) was used for a branch of stars somewhat more luminous than the bulk of red giants and more unstable, often large-amplitude variable stars such as Mira. Observations of a bifurcated giant branch had been made years earlier but it was unclear how the different sequences were related. By 1970, the red-giant region was well understood as being made up from subgiants, the RGB itself, the horizontal branch, and the AGB, and the evolutionary state of the stars in these regions was broadly understood. The red-giant branch was described as the first giant branch in 1967, to distinguish it from the second or asymptotic giant branch, and this terminology is still frequently used today.
Modern stellar physics has modelled the internal processes that produce the different phases of the post-main-sequence life of moderate-mass stars, with ever-increasingly complexity and precision.
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Introduction to time-variable astrophysical objects and processes, from Space Weather to stars, black holes, and galaxies. Introduction to time-series analysis, instrumentation targeting variability,
This is an introductory course in radiation physics that aims at providing students with a foundation in radiation protection and with information about the main applications of radioactive sources/su
Mira variables ˈmaɪrə (named for the prototype star Mira) are a class of pulsating stars characterized by very red colours, pulsation periods longer than 100 days, and amplitudes greater than one magnitude in infrared and 2.5 magnitude at visual wavelengths. They are red giants in the very late stages of stellar evolution, on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB), that will expel their outer envelopes as planetary nebulae and become white dwarfs within a few million years.
A red giant is a luminous giant star of low or intermediate mass (roughly 0.3–8 solar masses ()) in a late phase of stellar evolution. The outer atmosphere is inflated and tenuous, making the radius large and the surface temperature around or lower. The appearance of the red giant is from yellow-white to reddish-orange, including the spectral types K and M, sometimes G, but also class S stars and most carbon stars.
Mira (ˈmaɪrə), designation Omicron Ceti (ο Ceti, abbreviated Omicron Cet, ο Cet), is a red-giant star estimated to be 200–300 light-years from the Sun in the constellation Cetus. ο Ceti is a binary stellar system, consisting of a variable red giant (Mira A) along with a white dwarf companion (Mira B). Mira A is a pulsating variable star and was the first non-supernova variable star discovered, with the possible exception of Algol. It is the prototype of the Mira variables. ο Ceti (Latinised to Omicron Ceti) is the star's Bayer designation.
We measure the metallicities of 374 red giant branch (RGB) stars in the isolated, quenched dwarf galaxy Tucana using Hubble Space Telescope (HST) narrow-band (F395N) Calcium H & K (CaHK) imaging. Our sample is a factor of similar to 7 similar to 7 larger t ...
Iop Publishing Ltd2024
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We analyze variability in 15-season optical lightcurves from the doubly imaged lensed quasar SDSS J165043.44+425149.3 (SDSS1650), comprising five seasons of monitoring data from the Maidanak Observatory (277 nights in total, including the two seasons of da ...
Iop Publishing Ltd2024
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The tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) is an important standard candle for determining luminosity distances. Although several 105 small-amplitude red giant stars (SARGs) have been discovered, variability was previously considered irrelevant for the TRGB as ...