Hubble captures the planetary nebula NGC 2440, the gas cast off by a dying star in exactly the kind of lopsided, uneven ejections that give it a recoil kick. The star itself, now a white dwarf, is the white dot at the centre. Credit: NASA, ESA, and K. Noll (STScI)). Imagine being nudged again and again by thousands of tiny shoves, each one barely perceptible alone, until they add up to a steady drift in one direction. That is roughly the fate of a star like our Sun as it nears the end of its life.