Giant star degenerate helium fusion begins explosively, but most of the energy goes into lifting the degeneracy and the core becomes convective. The energy generated by helium fusion reduces the pressure in the surrounding hydrogen-burning shell, which reduces its energy-generation rate. The overall luminosity of the star decreases, its outer envelope contracts again, and the star moves from the red-giant branch to the horizontal branch. When the core helium is exhausted, a star with up to about has a carbon–oxygen core that becomes degenerate and starts helium burning in a shell. As with the earlier collapse of the helium core, this starts
Ice giant by extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation emitted by θ Orionis C suggests another possible mechanism for the formation of ice giants. Multiple-Jupiter-mass gas-giant protoplanets could have rapidly formed due to disk instability before having the majority of their hydrogen envelopes stripped off by intense EUV radiation from a nearby massive star. In the Carina Nebula, EUV fluxes are approximately 100 times higher than in Trapezium's Orion Nebula. Protoplanetary disks are present in both nebulae. Higher EUV fluxes make this an even more likely possibility for ice-giant formation. The stronger EUV would increase the removal of the gas envelopes from the protoplanets