All stars die eventually, but they don't all die the same. A star's death is determined by its mass. Only the most massive stars die in supernovae explosions, and those calamitous explosions announce their death in a burst of pent-up light, an exclamation point marking the end of their lives of fusion.

But our Sun, a more moderately-sized star, will experience a much different end. As it burns its fuel and slowly loses mass, it well eventually lose it gravitational hold on its outer layers of gas. It will expand, and the outer layers of gas will be expelled into the space around star, creating a gorgeous planetary nebula , quite possibly Nature's most beautiful creation. The nebula will last tens of thousands of years, and after that, only a cinder-like white dwarf will remain. Fusion will be a distant memory for this stellar corpse, which will radiate only remnant heat. White dwarfs spend an astronomical eternity in this state, until they eventually cool enough to become a black dwarf.…