In HUbble vs Webb pictures we see the dying start picture. Why after 24 years it is still is a dying explosion scene. Shouldn’t be an instant?

Question

NASA released the latest pictures from Webb. You can see a link to a dying start here:
https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2022/news-2022-033?Collection=First%20Images

I am not sure, how it is possible that after 24 years, it seems the dying star explosion is still in a very similar size and shape. Can someone please what exactly we are observing in this picture.

In: 2

Answer 1

I think you are confusing the ideas of dying and death. Just like in humans, dying can be stretched out over months and years, but the final act of death is pretty much instant. Everything go through various “life stages,” and humans define when the “dying” stage begins. In the case of a star, dying means something along the lines of “not enough hydrogen left for sustained fusion.” A dying star could be in the red giant stage, where lots of mass is ejected from the surface of the star, as seen in the picture, or white dwarf stage where this mass is depleted.