Study predicts beautiful star death for the Sun
- 6 years ago
THE HEART OF THE SUN — New research published in Nature Astronomy suggests the sun will become a planetary nebula.
These are formed by a collapsed star's core lighting up surrounding gas and dust it ejected during the final stages of stellar death. This can last for around 10,000 years, reports the Smithsonian.
Previous research posited that the sun's dying core wouldn't warm up quick enough to do this, but the new study demonstrates it could actually heat at triple this speed, reports the Smithsonian.
That means it has the potential to form a faint planetary nebula. A researcher on the study to the Guardian that the nebula would be viewable from the Andromeda galaxy 2 million light years away.
These are formed by a collapsed star's core lighting up surrounding gas and dust it ejected during the final stages of stellar death. This can last for around 10,000 years, reports the Smithsonian.
Previous research posited that the sun's dying core wouldn't warm up quick enough to do this, but the new study demonstrates it could actually heat at triple this speed, reports the Smithsonian.
That means it has the potential to form a faint planetary nebula. A researcher on the study to the Guardian that the nebula would be viewable from the Andromeda galaxy 2 million light years away.