399_WhiteDwarfCollision

A scene far more common within a globular cluster, where stars swarm like bees and collisions between them are more likely, this digital painting shows the final minutes of our sun's life as a white dwarf approaches it. As tidal forces stretch the sun into a pear-shape, the delicate balance between gravity and radiation pressure fails, and the sun ruptures. The energy released as the two stars merge would vaporize the earth. Painted for November, 2002 cover of Scientific American.