Schematic Diagram of the White Dwarf Binary System SS Cygni (IMAGE)

International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research

Schematic Diagram of the White Dwarf Binary System SS Cygni

Caption

The two stars are close enough to one another that gas falls in from the companion star and swirls around the white dwarf in an accretion disc. The disc gets very hot, producing radiation that illuminates the surface of the companion star and heats it up. Gas from the inner part of the disc is accelerated outwards in fast-moving, oppositely-directed jets, which produce the radio waves that the astronomers used to study the star system and measure its distance from Earth.

Credit

Image credit: J. Miller-Jones (ICRAR), using software created by R. Hynes.

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