Blue Giant Stars –

Everything You Need

To Know
You might not know it to look at it, but our local star, the Sun, is really
nothing special. In fact, it’s just a regular yellow dwarf star. It
dominates our solar system and yet there are countless others that put
ours to shame.

Credit: Kryptid

Our own Milky Way galaxy contains billions of stars of many different
sizes and colors. From cool red dwarves to hot blue supergiants,
there are thought to be about 250 billion stars within our galaxy
alone. On any given clear night, you might be able to see about
2,000 of them.
What colors can you see? Which stars stand out? Which ones are
hottest? Or the largest? Which ones live the longest? Today we’ll
consider the blue supergiant stars of the cosmos – the kings whose
reigns are short and lonely.
1. Blue Giants Are Very Hot
Earth’s average temperature is about 58 degrees Fahrenheit (or
nearly 15 degrees Celsius.) However, astronomers measure
temperatures in Kelvin (K) and 58F is roughly 288K. In comparison,
the surface of the Sun is nearly 10,000F (5,500C) or roughly 5,800K.
That’s about 172 times hotter than the Earth, but still quite cool
compared to blue supergiants. These stars are some of the hottest
and can have surface temperatures in excess of 40,000K – about
four times hotter than the Sun.
So why are blue stars so hot? Or, alternatively, why are hot stars
blue? It really comes down to the star’s mass. As all stars produce
energy through nuclear fusion, the more massive a star, more
nuclear fusion is occurring and the more energy it gives out.
Most energy is emitted in the blue end of the spectrum and as light
itself is energy, the more energy is produced, the more blue light is
emitted. Hence, hot, blue stars.
2. They Are Very Luminous
There is a star, some 28,000 light years away, that’s about two
million times brighter than the Sun. When LBV 1806-20

A size comparison of a red

dwarf (lower left), the Sun (center), a blue dwarf (right) and R136a1
(background). Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

was discovered, back in January 2004, it was thought to be the

biggest and most luminous star known – but we now know that’s not
the case.
In fact, there are a number of stars even more luminous, with the
current record holder being R136a1. This blue hypergiant shines with
a light that’s nearly nine million times brighter than the Sun. Not
surprisingly, it’s also the most massive star, with an estimated mass
of over 250 Suns and a volume large enough to contain 27,000 Suns
within it.
Again, the reason blue stars are so luminous comes down to energy.
The more energy is produced, the more light is emitted and energy is
emitted at the blue end of the spectrum. The reason R136a1 is so
luminous is that it generates more energy in four seconds than the
Sun does in a year. So you have a very luminous, hot blue giant star!
3. Blue Giant Stars Are Unstable
There’s a limit to a star’s luminosity and this limit actually has a
name, the Eddington Limit (or Eddington Luminosity). Named for the
man who discovered it, Sir Arthur Eddington, it describes the balance
between the force of radiation (energy as light) being pushed outward
and the force of gravity pulling inward.
Super and hypergiant stars live close to the edge of this limit.
Sometimes, when the limit is exceeded and the outward push of
radiation is greater than the inward pull of gravity, the star ejects
matter and suddenly brightens. Eventually, balance returns, the star
slips below the Eddington Limit again, less radiation (light) is emitted
and the star consequently dims.
To all intents and purposes, it’s as though the star has become a
temporary supernova.
A classic example of this is the star Eta Carinae, in the southern
hemisphere. This multiple star system has a combined luminosity of
over five million Suns and a combined mass of about 200 Suns. Over
the past 160 years, it has undergone a number of sporadic outbursts,
causing it to shift back and forth from naked-eye brilliance to
invisibility.

Hubble image of Eta Carinae showing huge bubbles of material that

were blown off during the Great Eruption. Credit – NASA

Most famously, in 1843 it became the second brightest star in the sky
as a result of an event now known as the Great Eruption. The
aftermath of this outburst can be seen in photographs taken with the
Hubble Space Telescope. It’s currently a relatively dim magnitude 4.3
star, but it’s been consistently brightening over the past few years.
4. These Stars Don’t Live Long
“The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long,” said Lao
Tzu, the renowned philosopher of ancient China. He was, of course,
talking about our mortal lives, but he could have been talking about
the lives of giant blue stars.
Put simply, stars survive by fusing hydrogen into helium. The more
massive the star, the quicker it burns through its supply of hydrogen
and, therefore, the shorter its lifespan.
Our Sun is middle-aged; it’s been around for about four and a half
billion years and probably has another five billion to go. That’s not
bad. It’s certainly plenty of time for the human race to leave the Earth
and find a new home.
In comparison, a red dwarf star typically has about a tenth the mass
of the Sun and could theoretically survive for trillions of years. The
universe itself is thought to only be about 13 billion years old, so
there’s no way to test the theory yet!
(No one knows the fate of the universe or when, if at all, it will ever
come to an end. Assuming the universe does come to an end, red
dwarves could potentially last until the end of time!)
Now let’s consider blue supergiant stars. It’s not unusual for these
stars to have masses of ten or twenty times greater than the Sun.
Rigel, for example, has a mass of about 21 Suns. It’s burning through
its hydrogen pretty rapidly and is losing mass ten million times faster
than the Sun.
Despite only being about eight million years old, it’s already burned
through its hydrogen and could be entering the final stages of its life.
In fact, at a distance of about 800 light years, it could have already
become a supernova and we simply don’t know it yet. (Realistically
though, it’s probably still got millions of years to go.)
5. Blue Supergiants Don’t Have Planets
As of this date (April 2019), there are over 2,800 stars with confirmed
planets. None of them are blue giant stars. Part
 comparison of the dusty disk
found around HD 37974 and our own solar system. Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC)

of the reason is that it takes billions of years for planets to form and,
unfortunately, blue giants simply don’t live that long.
Another reason is that blue giants tend to have very strong solar
winds that make it difficult for planets to form in the first place. Having
said that, there have been two giant stars discovered with dusty disks
around them.
Both were discovered by the Spitzer space telescope in 2006 and are
located in our nearest galactic neighbor, the Large Magellanic Cloud.
One, HD 37974 (R126) is over 70 times more massive than the Sun
and is over a million times more luminous.
Both stars have dusty discs that extend 60 times further than the orbit
of Pluto and could contain ten times as much mass as our own
Kuiper belt. Nobody knows if these discs represent the formation of a
solar system or the destruction of one.
6. Some Blue Giants Are Quite Rare
Stars are classified by their characteristics and typically fall into one
of seven groups, with each group being assigned a letter of the
alphabet. The seven groups (or types) are O, B, A, F, G, K, and M.
The hottest and most luminous stars
 The three stars of Orion’s belt.
From left to right, Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. Credit: Digitized Sky
Survey, ESA/ESO/NASA FITS Liberator

are known as Type O stars, while the coolest and least luminous are
Type M.
Type O stars are the rarest and you may have already guessed the
reason why. They’re typically very hot, very luminous and very
massive, so they appear blue and tend to burn through their fuel very
quickly and then explode.
If we could watch a time-lapse video of the night sky over the past
billion years, the chances are we’d see a lot of blue stars quickly
appear and then suddenly vanish, like fireworks on New Years’ Eve.
They’re rare because they simply don’t live as long as the other stars
and so they’re not as numerous. If you want to spot a couple of easy
examples, turn towards Orion. Of the three stars that form his belt,
two are type O blue giant stars: Mintaka, the westernmost, and
Alnitak, the easternmost.
Both were probably born from the same star cloud, the Orion
Molecular Cloud Complex. Alnitak is actually the brightest example of
a type O star in the entire night sky. It’s a multiple star system, some
1,250 light years away, with the largest member being a blue
supergiant some 33 times the mass of the Sun and with a luminosity
of over 200,000 Suns.
7. Other Blue Giants Are More Common
The other type of blue star, type B, is actually fairly common. As type
B stars tend to be less massive, they take longer to burn through
their fuel and, hence, they have longer lifespans and there’s more of
them around.
Type B blue supergiants are relatively common in the night sky
because of their luminosity; despite the distance, they’re still easily
seen because they’re bright.
If you want to see some examples, you only have to look again at
Orion. Rigel, the star that marks the hunter’s knee, is the seventh
brightest star in the sky and the brightest example of a Type B blue
supergiant.
At a distance of over 850 light years, it must be very luminous to be
so easily seen. However, estimates of its luminosity wildly vary. The
star could be anywhere between about 60,000 and 360,000 times
more luminous than the Sun.
Another example can, again, be found in Orion. Alnilam is the middle
and brightest star in Orion’s belt, with neighboring Mintaka and
Alnitak on either side. Alnilam is, arguably, more impressive than any
of the other blue supergiants to be found in the region.
Not only is it further away (about 2,000 light years) but with some
estimates placing its luminosity at over 500,000 Suns, it’s the most
luminous of the seven stars that form the brightest part of the
constellation.
8. Where Can Blue Super Giants be
Found?
Besides Orion, a winter constellation, there’s an easy way to find blue
giants at any time of year: open star clusters.

The Jewel Box star cluster, in

the southern constellation of Crux. Credit: ESO

Open star clusters (such as the Pleiades) are typically formed of

young, hot, blue-white stars that have yet to drift apart from one
another. The Pleiades is the most famous example, but there are, of
course, many others to be found across the night sky.
Northern hemisphere observers can admire the giant blue stars of
the Pleiades, but those in the southern hemisphere have their own
prize.
NGC 4755, the famed Jewel Box cluster in the constellation of Crux,
is a stunning open cluster and contains a number of blue giant stars.
Messier 47, in Puppis, another winter sight, has a multitude of giant
stars while Messier 18, in the summer constellation of Sagittarius,
has nearly thirty type B stars. In the autumn, NGC 663, in
Cassiopeia, has over twenty.
Remember the Blue Giant Kings
Spare a thought for the blue giant stars. These stellar kings are as
luminous as they are rare. Their reign can be cut short in the blink of
a cosmic eye, leaving no planetary legacy to remember them by.
As you look upon them, be grateful that you have the opportunity to
see them at all. These brilliant beacons of light may be here today
but will be gone for our ancestors of tomorrow. How many have come
and gone since the dinosaurs walked the Earth? How many others
will live and die before the Earth itself is gone? Ultimately, they all
may come, but few may be remembered