Will the Sun make a planetary nebula when it dies?. In around 7 billion years, we expect the Sun to run out of fuel, dying in a planetary nebula/white dwarf combination. Is that for certain?.
From their earliest beginnings to their final extent before fading away, Sun-like stars will grow from their present size to the size of a red giant (~the Earth's orbit) to up to ~5 light-years in diameter, typically. The largest known planetary nebulae can reach approximately double that size, up to ~10 light-years across, but none of this necessarily means that the Sun is a typical, average star. (Credit: Ivan Bojičić, Quentin Parker, and David Frew, Laboratory for Space Research, HKU) Member-only story Will the Sun make a planetary nebula when it dies? In around 7 billion years, we expect the Sun to run out of fuel, dying in a planetary nebula/white dwarf combination. Is that for certain? Ethan Siegel · Follow Published in Starts With A Bang! · 3 min read · 1 hour ago 1 hour ago -- Share Whenever a star is born, it expectantly follows a specific life cycle. This Hubble Space Telescope image of open star cluster NGC 290, showcases a region where thousands of newborn stars were created 30–60 million years ago. They come in a wide variety of masses, where a combination of their initial mass and future interactions will determine their ultimate fates. (Credit: ESA and NASA; Acknowledgment: E. Olszewski (University of Arizona)) Stars are hot, dense balls of gas and plasma. This cutaway showcases the various regions of the surface and interior of the Sun, including the core, which is the only location where nuclear fusion occurs. As time goes on and hydrogen is consumed, the helium-containing region in the core expands and the maximum temperature increases, causing the Sun to "cross the main sequence" as its…