What celestial object will the Sun eventually become after it sheds its outer layers as a Planetary Nebula?

Answer

A White Dwarf, cooling towards a Black Dwarf.

The Sun, being a star with a mass less than about 8 times the mass of the Sun, follows the gentler evolutionary path. After exhausting the hydrogen and then the helium fuel in its core, it will expand into a Red Giant, then undergo helium depletion. At this stage, lacking the mass to initiate fusion of heavier elements like carbon, its outer layers drift away to form a Planetary Nebula. The remaining core, composed of inert carbon and oxygen, stabilizes as a White Dwarf. This stellar remnant is incredibly dense, similar to the mass of the Sun compressed to the size of Earth. Over immense timescales, trillions of years, this White Dwarf will cease radiating significant heat and light, eventually becoming a cold, dark Black Dwarf.

What celestial object will the Sun eventually become after it sheds its outer layers as a Planetary Nebula?

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