Deneb

Aldebaran is a red giant branch star in Taurus with a cool orange surface and a diameter about 45 times the Sun’s. It lies in front of the Hyades cluster by chance, so it appears to sit among the bull’s-head stars without actually belonging to that group.

Object class

K-type red giant star

Mass

~1.03 solar masses

Host

Aldebaran system

Estimated age

~6.4 billion years

Composition

Hydrogen and helium

Temperature

~3,900 K surface

VY Canis Majoris is an extreme red hypergiant wrapped in a dense, asymmetric cloud of its own ejecta. Much of its light reaches us in the infrared after being absorbed and re-emitted by that dust.

Object class

Red hypergiant star

Mass

~17 solar masses

Temperature

~3,500 K surface

Estimated age

~8 million years

Composition

Hydrogen and helium

Arcturus is a bright orange giant and the brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere. It also races unusually fast across the sky for such a bright star, shifting by about two arcseconds per year because of its high motion relative to the Sun.

Object class

K-type orange giant star

Mass

~1.1 solar masses

Temperature

~4,300 K surface

Estimated age

~7.1 billion years

Composition

Hydrogen and helium