When we look up at the night sky, we see familiar stars and constellations that have been visible for thousands of years. Yet stars do not last forever. They live and die, though on exceptionally long timescales. But how long will it take for these changes to be visible in the constellations visible from Earth?
Much of this depends on the lifetimes of certain stars. Most stars in our galaxy are small. However, in the constellations we see, large and bright stars are overrepresented. The larger the star, the shorter its lifetime and the sooner it will disappear from our sky.
