High-Mass X-Ray Binary (2012)

High-Mass X-Ray Binary

T his is an animation of a high-mass x-ray binary, in which a giant blue star is in orbit around a compact companion – sometimes a neutron star and sometimes a black hole. The giant star is distorted owing to its proximity to its highly compact partner. Gas flows from the blue giant towards the black hole/neutron star and forms a gaseous pancake called an accretion disc. As it spirals to its doom, the gas is heated to very high temperatures, leading to the emission of x-rays, from which this class of system derives it name. In some x-ray binaries, such as SS433, a collimated pair of particle jets is emitted from the centre of the disc and projected into space at great speed. The exact mechanism for this is not entirely clear.
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