Red-giant branch through several distinct stages which are reflected in the outward appearance. The evolutionary stages vary depending primarily on the mass of the star, but also on its metallicity. After a main-sequence star has exhausted its core hydrogen, it begins to fuse hydrogen in a thick shell around a core consisting largely of helium. The mass of the helium core is below the Schönberg–Chandrasekhar limit and is in thermal equilibrium, and the star is a subgiant. Any additional energy production from the shell fusion is consumed in inflating the envelope and the star cools but does not increase in luminosity. Shell
Omega Carinae Omega Carinae is a shell star, having a circumstellar disk of gas surrounding its equator. The luminosity class of III indicates it has evolved into a giant star, having exhausted the hydrogen at its core and left the main sequence. The effective temperature of 13,275 K in its outer envelope is what gives this star the blue-white hue that is characteristic of B-type stars. This star is rotating rapidly with a projected rotational velocity of , which gives a lower limit to the star's azimuthal velocity along the equator. The critical equatorial velocity, at which the star would begin to