luminosity to vary, but for most stars at near solar metallicity, the temperature and luminosity are very similar at the cool end of the horizontal branch. These stars form the red clump at about 5,000 K and . Less massive hydrogen envelopes cause the stars to take up a hotter and less luminous position on the horizontal branch, and this effect occurs more readily at low metallicity so that old metal-poor clusters show the most pronounced horizontal branches. Stars initially more massive than have non-degenerate helium cores on the red-giant branch. These stars become hot enough to start triple-alpha fusion before they reach the tip of the red-giant branch and before the core becomes degenerate. They then leave the red-giant branch and perform a blue loop before returning to join the asymptotic giant branch. Stars only a little more massive than perform a barely noticeable blue loop at a few hundred before continuing on the AGB hardly distinguishable from their red-giant branch position. More massive stars perform extended blue loops which can reach 10,000 K or more at luminosities of . These stars will cross the instability strip more than once and pulsate as Type I (Classical) Cepheid variables. Properties The table below shows the typical lifetimes on the main sequence (MS), subgiant branch (SB) and red-giant branch (RGB), for stars with different initial masses, all at solar metallicity (Z = 0.02). Also shown are the helium core mass, surface effective temperature, radius and luminosity at the start and end of the RGB for each star. The end of the red-giant branch is defined to be when core helium ignition takes place. Intermediate-mass stars only lose a small fraction of their mass as main-sequence and subgiant stars, but lose a significant amount of mass as red giants. The mass lost by a star similar to the Sun affects the temperature and luminosity of the star when it reaches the horizontal branch, so the properties of red-clump stars can be used to determine the mass difference before and after the helium flash. Mass lost from red giants also determines the mass and properties of the white dwarfs that form subsequently. Estimates of total mass loss for stars that reach the tip of the red-giant branch are around . Most of this is lost within the final million years before the helium flash. Mass lost by more massive stars that leave the