This is one of the neatest visions of the Helix Nebula (a planetary nebula) that I’ve ever seen. It’s from the Spitzer Space Telescope, which looked at this remnant of a dying, Sun-like star in infrared wavelengths of light at 3.6-4.6 microns, 5.8-9 microns, and 24 microns (in blue, green, and red, respectively).
So, this image is a snapshot of various events that happened as the star’s death progressed. First, the green-blue shell is the infrared view of the first layers of gas blown off as the star began its death throes. They’ve traveled the farthest from the star. The reddish diffuse shell just inside the blue-green clouds is dust that was kicked up when the outrushing atmosphere collided with dusty comets that survived the death of the star. The comets survived the first pulse of outgassing from the star, which is a rare occurrence. As events unfolded, the cometary ices melted away, leaving behind clouds of dust to bounce around in the swirling, outrushing gas. The red ball in the center is a shell of gas that was blown away from the star as it died. And, the white dot in the center (go here to see a larger image) is what remains of the Sun-like star.

People always ask what will happen with the Sun dies. Well, it might just look like this more than 5 billion years from now!