Be X-ray Binary System is a photograph by Mark Garlick/science Photo Library which was uploaded on October 3rd, 2018.
Be X-ray Binary System
Artist's impression of a Be X-ray binary. At the top is a B-type star with emission lines of hydrogen in its spectrum. Be stars spin so quickly that... more
Title
Be X-ray Binary System
Artist
Mark Garlick/science Photo Library
Medium
Photograph
Description
Artist's impression of a Be X-ray binary. At the top is a B-type star with emission lines of hydrogen in its spectrum. Be stars spin so quickly that they are often surrounded by a circumstellar disc of matter, material which has been flung off via centrifugal force like water wrung from clothes in a spin dryer. The emission lines are thought to emanate from this disc. The Be star is in orbit around a neutron star (bottom). In Be X-ray binaries the orbits are considerably elliptical. When the orbit brings the stars close together (periastron), as this image shows, gas from the Be star's disc flows towards the neutron star and surrounds it in a smaller accretion disc. This gas is heated to very high temperatures, emitting X-rays. When the neutron star is far from the Be star, by contrast, it can no longer feed off its companion. Its accretion disc, and therefore the X-rays, then diminish.
Uploaded
October 3rd, 2018
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