Depending on the mass of the star, this lifetime ranges from only a few million years for the most massive to trillions of years for the least massive, which is considerably longer than the age of the universe. How a star will vary. Some explode like a Supernova. Others collapse into white dwarf or a black hole. Researchers using NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) have captured an infrared image of the last exhalations of a dying sun like star.
The object observed by SOFIA, planetary nebula Minkowski 2-9, or M2-9 for short, is seen in a three color composite image.