Planets Artwork of two planets orbiting a white dwarf star They are dead and frozen worlds receiving no heat from the cold light of the dwarf star upper right This star was once a star like our Sun It burned brightly on its hydrogen fuel and when that was spent it became a giant red star ultimately collapsing to form a shrunken dimly burning white dwarf star This is the likely fate of our own Sun In the background is a region of space rich in hydrogen nebulae blue and red coalescing to form new stars