Day 23 of the 2024 House Telescope Creation Calendar
Day 23 of the 2024 House Telescope Creation Calendar: a twig of glowing filaments. R Aquarii is a symbiotic binary star that lies roughly 700 light-years from Earth, surrounded by a big, dynamic nebula. The first star is an getting old pink big, and its companion is a compact, burned-out star often called a white dwarf. When the white dwarf swings closest to the pink big alongside its 44-year orbital interval, it gravitationally siphons off hydrogen gasoline. This materials accumulates within the accretion disk surrounding the white dwarf, till it undergoes an lively outburst and jet ejection. This outburst ejects highly effective jets, seen as filaments taking pictures out from the binary system, forming loops and trails because the plasma emerges in streamers.
See the complete creation calendar right here, the place a brand new picture shall be revealed every day till December 25.