Asymptotic giant branch forming helium (known as hydrogen burning), and a very large envelope of material of composition similar to main-sequence stars. When a star exhausts the supply of hydrogen by nuclear fusion processes in its core, the core contracts and its temperature increases, causing the outer layers of the star to expand and cool. The star becomes a red giant, following a track towards the upper-right hand corner of the HR diagram. Eventually, once the temperature in the core has reached approximately , helium burning (fusion of helium nuclei) begins. The onset of helium burning in the core halts the star's cooling
Fleming 1 a torus of expanding hot gas forming the inner bright ellipse. Fleming 1 is probably 5,000 years old. Like any other planetary nebula Fleming 1 was formed when an old asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star lost its outer hydrogen-rich envelope, leaving behind a hot core (young white dwarf)—the central star of the nebula. The star in the center of Fleming 1 has a temperature of and mass of 0.56 . Observations performed by European Southern Observatory showed that the central star is in fact a double degenerate (made of two white dwarfs) binary with a period of days. The companion