Talk:Red giant

Hydrogen and/or Helium

I've changed the main article to say "Red giants usually burn hydrogen and helium through nuclear fusion." It used to say "Red giants usually burn helium."

Is this correct? The English Wikipedia article on Red Giants says that "Once the star is fusing helium in its core, it contracts and is no longer considered a red giant." If this is true then the former assertion in SEWP (that "Red giants usually burn helium") is wrong as we should change the article to say "Red giants usually burn hydrogen through nuclear fusion." As a side issue, since this is what other, non-red-giant stars usually do, I'm not sure that this sentence has meaning anymore in an article about Red Giants.

Of course, if the enWP article is wrong and red giants mostly burn helium, not hydrogen, then we should revert the sentence in the SEWP article and fix the enWP article.

Does anyone know what elements red giants actually do burn? --RoyGoldsmith (talk) 18:41, 31 July 2009 (UTC)

The article on enWP about red giants says, "The most common red giants are the so-called red giant branch stars (RGB stars) whose shells are still fusing hydrogen into helium, while the core is inactive helium". --The High Fin Sperm Whale (talk) 05:44, 11 November 2009 (UTC)