Scientists agree the sun will die in approximately 10 billion years, but, until now, they weren’t sure what would happen next.
A team of international astronomers from the University of Manchester, predict it will turn into a massive ring of luminous, interstellar gas and dust, known as a planetary nebula.
A planetary nebula marks the end of 90% of all stars active lives and traces the star’s transition from a red giant to a degenerate white dwarf.
But, for years, scientists weren’t sure if the sun in our galaxy would follow the same fate: it was thought to have too low mass to create a visible planetary nebula.
To find out the team developed a new stellar, data-model that predicts the lifecycle of stars.
The model was used to predict the brightness (or luminosity) of the ejected envelope, for stars of different masses and ages.
The new models predict that the Sun at the end of its life will also form a planetary nebula, but it will be faint.
News Source: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/what-will-happen-when-our-sun-dies/
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