Stars eventually die when they exhaust their nuclear fuel. Small stars cool and shrink into white dwarfs, while larger stars that become red giants either shed their outer layers leaving behind dense neutron stars or explode in gigantic supernovae. The oldest stars are around 13.7 billion years old, formed shortly after the Big Bang, while big bright stars only live for around 10 million years and stars like the Sun will live for approximately 10 billion years.