Cygnus X-1 is a very famous x-ray binary star system. It consists of a giant blue star (top) in orbit around what in all likelihood is a – wait for it – black hole. The black hole steals gas from its giant companion and that gas flows towards the...

This 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 part...

In some x-ray binary systems matter is transferred from one star to the other via the donor star's stellar wind. The stellar wind, like the Sun's solar wind, is a steady stream of particles that blasts away from the star's surface and out into space....