What is the brightest white supergiant star in the constellation Cygnus?

What is the brightest white supergiant star in the constellation Cygnus?

• A. Betelgeuse
• B. Rigel
• C. Deneb
• D. Sirius

Answer: (C)

Deneb is recognized as the brightest white supergiant star located in the constellation Cygnus. It plays a pivotal role in the Northern Cross asterism and is one of the most luminous stars known, with a radius approximately 200 times that of the Sun and a brightness thousands of times greater. Deneb serves as a key star in our understanding of stellar classification, particularly for supergiants, due to its immense size and brightness.

Betelgeuse and Rigel are also notable stars, but they belong to different constellations; Betelgeuse is a red supergiant in Orion, while Rigel is a blue supergiant, also in Orion, and not classified as a white supergiant. Sirius, on the other hand, is the brightest star in the night sky overall, but it is not classified as a supergiant; rather, it is a binary star system with a main sequence star that is significantly smaller and less luminous than Deneb.