Red-giant branch Red-giant branch The red-giant branch (RGB), sometimes called the first giant branch, is the portion of the giant branch before helium ignition occurs in the course of stellar evolution. It is a stage that follows the main sequence for low- to intermediate-mass stars. Red-giant-branch stars have an inert helium core surrounded by a shell of hydrogen fusing via the CNO cycle. They are K- and M-class stars much larger and more luminous than main-sequence stars of the same temperature. Red giants were identified early in the 20th century when the use of the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram made it clear that there
Triatomic hydrogen gas was unstable, but at the same time also confirmed that the cation existed. In 1917 Gerald Wendt and William Duane discovered that hydrogen gas subjected to alpha particles shrank in volume and thought that diatomic hydrogen was converted to triatomic. After this researchers thought that active hydrogen could be the triatomic form. Joseph Lévine went so far as to postulate that low pressure systems on the Earth happened due to triatomic hydrogen high in the atmosphere. In 1920 Wendt and Landauer named the substance "Hyzone" in analogy to ozone and its extra reactivity over normal hydrogen. Earlier Gottfried Wilhelm