Magnetic Accretion
This is an impression of a polar or an AM Herculis binary. It is a type of cataclysmic variable
related to the system seen in
Intermediate Polar. A red dwarf (bottom) loses material to a
compact white dwarf (top right) with a very strong magnetic field. The field is so strong that the
material, on its way to the white dwarf, becomes caught up in the field and flows towards the
compact star's magnetic poles..