Blue+Giants+4A

Blue Giants are very large stars that are hot and very luminous. They burn hydrogen, then helium. These stars run out of fuel in a fairly short amount of time, burning out in about 10,000 to 100,000. This is because of their hotness and denseness. Unlike other stars that shrink and form a planetary nebula, they explode into a supernova. A supernova is an explosion that creates very luminous objects. Blue giant stars have a spectral type of O and B, which causes its blue color. On the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, they are located in the upper left hand corner because of their extremely high luminosity. Its surface temperature is 15,000 dregrees celicus or more. Its surface temperature is 5 to 10 times hotter than our local stars. Blue Giants have a mass that is 10 times greater then that of the Sun. Although they are rare stars, they make up many of the stars we see at night. The Spica is an example of a blue giant. It is the 16th brightest star in the sky. It is 2300 times more bright than our sun. It is a part of the constellation Virgo and it is bluish- white in color. It is the brightest star in this constellation. Another example of a blue giant star is Pleiades, also known as the seven sisters. It is that nearest star to the earth and the most striking to the naked eye. The cluster is about 12 years away and contains a total of 500 stars. Only 14 can be seen with the naked eye.

Here are some examples of Blue Giants :


 * Pleiades**
 * Spica**