For the first time in history, astronomers have directly followed the slow death of a star over more than a century.
Their findings show that this star is heating up much faster than expected—faster than any similar star ever observed.
The research, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, focuses on a planetary nebula called IC418, also known as the “spirograph nebula.”
It lies about 4,000 light years from Earth and is made of glowing gas and dust thrown off by a dying star at its center.
Planetary nebulae mark the final stages of a star’s life, when the star sheds its outer layers and the remaining core heats up, lighting the surrounding gas into intricate shapes. Our own sun will one day go through the same process in about five billion years.
By carefully piecing together observations that stretch back to 1893, scientists discovered that the nebula has been changing much more quickly than anyone thought possible. When astronomers first looked at IC418 through telescopes in the late 19th century, they saw a faint green glow caused by oxygen atoms.
Since then, that glow has become about 2.5 times brighter.
The reason is that the central star has been getting hotter—its temperature has risen by about 3,000 degrees Celsius in just 130 years, which works out to around 1,000 degrees every 40 years. For comparison, the sun increased by the same amount during its early formation, but that took 10 million years.
What makes this discovery even more striking is that even though the star is heating faster than any ever measured, it is still slower than modern models predicted.
This suggests that scientists may need to revise their understanding of how stars age and die, especially which stars are able to produce carbon, the element essential for life.
Professor Albert Zijlstra, the lead researcher, explained that the study shows how important it is to look back at old scientific records. “We often ignore data collected long ago. But here, those observations revealed the fastest evolution of a typical star ever seen. The past shows us that the night sky is not as unchanging as we may think,” he said.
The team combined data from many sources—eyewitness notes from Victorian astronomers, photographic plates, and the most advanced telescopes of today. After calibrating and comparing all this information, they were able to measure the star’s heating rate and estimate both its current and original mass.
Co-author Professor Quentin Parker added, “This work gives us rare, direct evidence of how planetary nebulae evolve. It’s a strong reminder that the universe is changing all around us—even within a single human lifetime.”
