That’s what future planets of Beta Pictoris might develop. The star is a toddler, only twenty million years old. Planet formation is still millions of years away, but right now, the kid sports a halo of carbon gas.
Here’s a shot in infrared over on the right. Other artists have been more fanciful (see below) in depicting “Beta Pic,” the more familiar term for this 375 trillion-mile distant star.
Doing the math on such a voyage is an interesting little exercise. If I were able to set the cruise control on my new car for 65mph and drive an imaginary highway to Beta Pic, I would arrive in plenty of time (about 675 million years) to see those diamond mountains and avoid the crush hour traffic around young stars.
Not that I wouldn’t like to go some day. But on my salary, forget about a hyperdrive.