Picture of a dying star

Spitzer Space Telescope shows pictures of dying star on the photojournal. Isn't it beautiful?

The dying star is part o a planetary nebula. These only last a few thousand years.



Spitzer Space Telescope

A lot of other dying star pictures can be seen here: www.seds.org...

it's amazing to think that in 5-7 billion more years our Sun will look like this too.

Very cool pics, I have heard that the color is added to the pics, the images dont really look like that. Cmdrkeenkid Is this true?

Originally posted by SpittinCobra
Cmdrkeenkid Is this true?

yeah, when the sun begins to die it'll go through several steps.

first, as it runs out of hydrogen, it'll expand to about the orbit or Earth or possibly Mars. this will happen so that helium can be fused into carbon. eventually the sun will no longer be able to sustain this reaction and ejects about half of its mass into space. this creates the nebula, which will last about 50,000 years. at the center of the nebula will be what remains of the star: a white dwarf star about the size of Earth.

here's a couple good examples:
M27


M57

So yes color is added to the pics?

Originally posted by SpittinCobra
So yes color is added to the pics?

oh, whoops... i thought you were asking if it were true when i said that our Sun would look like this one day! in some pictures color is added, while in others it's not. it depends on the image. usually it is added though because it brings out more detail.

Originally posted by SpittinCobra
Very cool pics, I have heard that the color is added to the pics, the images dont really look like that. Cmdrkeenkid Is this true?

I think most space images are 'color corrected'. Where they make certain elements certain colors to show off more detail and beauty of the object.

eta carinae after a huge explosion

I'd love to be able to look at these things 'in person' per se...to marvel at their beauty. But I am just a mortal

So if we run on light years, how many light years away is the sun, and do we see things happen long after the fact? Someone once told me we could be looking at a star that has been dead for a thousand years...but we still see the light because of distance.

Originally posted by amber83
I'd love to be able to look at these things 'in person' per se...to marvel at their beauty. But I am just a mortal

So if we run on light years, how many light years away is the sun, and do we see things happen long after the fact? Someone once told me we could be looking at a star that has been dead for a thousand years...but we still see the light because of distance.

when you look at the sun,you see the sun as it was 8 minutes in the past.because light takes 8 minutes to reach earth.

same thing with all the stars in the universe,if a star is a 1000 light years away,that means the light takes 1000 years to reach earth,so you see the star the way it was a 1000 years ago.

That is pretty trippy...but still neat eh.

The whole time travel and light year thing confuse me at times. Tis a paradox