What is the stage after red giant for a low or medium mass star?

Answer 1

White dwarf is the most common answer if you are thinking of the red giant as the entire time a star swells to more than its main sequence size.

However, the stages of a star actually occur in this order.

After a medium mass star reaches red giant phase (second brightest phase), its core contracts until it becomes so dense helium begins to fuse into carbon (helium flash) at which point the star enters its second burning phase, known as the horizontal branch (slightly less bright than red giant).

This is the second longest phase of the star (if not considering dwarf phases which are not really stars, they are more like cooling coals after a fire).

Hydrogen to Helium reactions still occur in layers surrounding the core. When the star's store of Helium is consumed, it begins what is called the asymptotic giant branch (brightest/largest phase) where it again swells in size before pushing its otter layers off to form a planetary nebula.

Eventually this nebula floats away leaving the cooling carbon core known as a white dwarf which will eventually cool to a black dwarf over billions of years. (This is not to be confused with a brown dwarf which is a slightly less than a stars sized object that never will never have the temperature to fuse hydrogen.

There are currently none or very few black dwarfs present because the universe is not yet old enough for white dwarfs to have cooled.

This is the simplest correct answer I could give. If you are in first years of highschool or below you might want to write it all down because the likely hood of you teacher actually knowing the right answer is slim. More than likely they will assume a star moves straight from a red giant to white dwarf.

Unfortunately you can get answers marked wrong because of their stupidity.

Answer 2

I belive it decompresses into a black dwarf, then the super red giant explodes into billions of tiny pieces and creates a nebula. A nebula can be all sorts of colours, shapes and sizes. I think what happens next is that out of the the exploded super red giant, new stars are formed. They often are a blue flame colour.

Answer 3

After a star becomes a red giant, its life is almost over. It becomes a planetary nebula followed by its final stage as a white dwarf.

Answer 4

After the sun leaves the red giant phase it will become a helium burning horizontal branch star then, an asymptotic branch giant, and finally a white dwarf.

Answer 5

Main sequence