After becoming a red giant, what is the next stage for a sun-like star?

Once a sun-like star has exhausted the hydrogen in its core, it expands into a red giant. This stage of stellar evolution involves significant changes in the star's structure and energy production as it begins fusing helium into heavier elements. After this phase, the star does not continue expanding indefinitely; instead, it sheds its outer layers, creating a planetary nebula, while the core that remains becomes increasingly hot and dense.

The remaining core eventually stabilizes and loses its remaining heat and light over time, evolving into a white dwarf. This transition is critical, as a white dwarf will no longer undergo fusion but will instead gradually cool and fade over billions of years.

In contrast, options describing events like forming a neutron star or becoming a super red giant apply to more massive stars, which lead to different evolutionary pathways, while forming a nebula is part of the process but is not the direct subsequent stage in this specific scenario. The process culminates with the sun-like star becoming a white dwarf, representing the final evolutionary state for such stars.