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 nebula causing them to glow. This recently released false-color image taken from the Hubble Space Telescope reveals the unusual details.
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