Red+Supergiants+1A

Red Supergiants are bigger and more massive than a Red Giant. They are several hundred times the size of our Sun, and they weigh in at about ten suns. They are in the spectral class of M and K, and the luminosity class I. Their supergiant phase is short-lived, lasting a few hundred thousand to one million years at the most, before ending in a Supernova. The supergiants are extremely rare with about only 200 known red supergiants in our Galaxy. Betelgeuse and Antares are two examples. After helium burning red giant runs out the stars core starts to collapse and heat up. This causes the outer layers to expand and cool down. extremely massive supergiants are so large that they can produce high enough pressure and temperature to fuse elements even heavier than carbon and oxogen. Eventually stars this "massive" will die explosivly and become type two supernovae. Also the explosion of these stars is so big that it can cause a black hole or a nuetron star. For the most part, Red Supergiants are very unstable because of an Cepheid variables. Life spans of Red Supergiants is generally very short. They only live to be any where from a few hundred thousands of years to a million years. This is a very rare star though only about 200 of them are known to be in the entire galaxy. Although they are rare to find, you can find them in clusters or groups. There was once a group of 14 all togther around the center of the universe. When Red Supergiants are ending their lives and becoming supernovae they lose about half of their mass.


 * Betelgeuse**