By contrast, evidence indicates that only a few million years ago, IC 418 was probably a well-understood star similar to our Sun.
Only a few thousand years ago, IC 418 was probably a common red giant star.
Since running out of nuclear fuel, though, the outer envelope has begun expanding outward leaving a hot remnant core destined to become a white-dwarf star, visible in the image center.
The light from the central core excites surrounding atoms in the
