The Death of Arcturus
Arcturus is currently in its "red giant" stage. It has moved from the main sequence and is now fusing helium, converting it into heavier elements such as carbon and oxygen. It is unknown when this will happen, but Arcturus will eventually run out of helium and will become very heavy due to the elements now fused inside of it. Since Arcturus is roughly 1.1 times the mass of our Sun, we believe that the star will die and become a white dwarf. If Arcturus was a high mass star, it would die in a violent supernova explosion. Click the image below to learn more about supernova explosions.