Will the sun one day in the very distant future have a planetary nebula?

Question

Someone else had asked about the expansion of the sun's planetary nebula earlier today. Obviously, the sun does not currently have one- but might it someday?

I took astronomy years ago...the sun is destined to become a red giant. But do only the supernovae have planetary nebulae?

Answer 1

Yes, it will become a red giant.

Answer 2

Yes, it will most likely have an expanding ring of gases from the sun, following its red giant phase.  It will probably look like the Ring Nebula in Lyra, or some of the ones shown in this wiki article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_n...

Supernovae have a different kind of remnant nebula.  They are more explosive looking and expand much faster.  The sun will not supernova. See "Crab Nebula" for one of these.

Answer 3

As we understand it, the sun will become a red giant, after which, the planetary nebula will form as the ghost of that red giant.

Your second part...Supernovae rarely produce planetary nebulae because of the much higher energies involved. They produce irregular structures like the Crab Nebula.

Answer 4

Six or seven billion years from now, the Sun will eject it's outer layers as a planetary nebula in multiple outbursts, then collapse into the white dwarf state. All medium sized stars eject their outer layers back into space as a planetary nebula, which can last for 50,000 or 100,000 years before it thins and fades away. Supernovae do not create planetary nebulae, which expand at 10 or 20 miles per second. They create supernovae remnants instead which expand at speeds of 3,000 miles per second or more. One has been found with portions that are expanding at more than 8,500 miles per second, a testament to the violent ejection of the progenitor star's outer envelope. They are also far more massive and larger than a planetary nebula, which is merely the zone where the dying central star can excite the gas into glowing efficiently. Beyond the visible nebulae are massive coronas of gas too far from the central star to glow.