When it comes time for our Sun to essentially die, it will do so in a brilliant fashion. Following its planned end-of-life explosion 10 billion years from now, an enormous nebulous cloud of dust and gas will swirl throughout the void and, scientists now predict, will radiate a light that will slowly diminish over 100,000 years as the celestial debris coalesces into a white dwarf star.

Pixabay Previously, the scientific community thought that our sun was not large enough to form a glowing nebula, but after observing the luminescent remains of suns similar in size back in the 1980s, doubts emerged. The Independent reports that a research team from the University of Manchester has published a paper in the journal Nature Astronomy, that claims our sun has enough size and energy to produce a dazzling, glittering nebula that will last thousands of years.

Wikipedia Professor Albert Zijlstra, one of the Manchester researchers, asserts that when the sun dies, it will expel cosmic flotsam and jetsam that will be illuminated by a very hot core of heated gas. “It is only then the hot core makes the ejected envelope shine brightly for around 10,000 years – a brief period in astronomy,” he added. “This is what makes the planetary nebula visible.”

Pixabay After years of observation and model testings, the scientists now believe that the envelope of debris around the gas acts like insulation, allowing the core to heat up three times faster than previously thought. The required shielding material is so precise that a dead star just a fraction smaller than our Sun would not have enough ‘oomph’ to provide luminescence. Of the study and published paper, Professor Zijlstra said: “This is a nice result. Not only do we now have a way to measure the presence of stars of ages a few billion years in distant galaxies, which is a range that is remarkably difficult to measure, we even have found out what the sun will do when it dies. “Problem solved, after 25 years.”