NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) recently published a picture of the death of a star very similar to our sun.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope photographed the death of a sun-like star occurring roughly 5,000 light years away in what is called the Rotten Egg Nebula. The nebula received that name because it contains a lot of sulphur, an element that smells like a rotten egg.
Image credit: (ESA/Hubble & NASA)
Like the star in the image, our sun is rather ordinary. The image is a lot like what scientists think will happen in 5 billion years when our sun swells outward, swallowing Mercury, Venus and potentially even Earth. When it finally reaches the end of its lifespan and exhausts its supply of hydrogen and helium, it will swell into a red giant and blow its outer layer of gas and dust outward.
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