Neutron Star and Donor (image)

International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research

Caption

An artist's impression of the binary system Swift J0243.6+6124. A binary system with a neutron star in a 27-day orbit and a more massive, rapidly-rotating donor star. The rapid rotation of the donor star throws off a disk of material around the stellar equator. As the neutron star passes through the disk during its orbit, it picks up some of this outflowing gas, which then spirals in towards the neutron star in an accretion disk.

Credit

Credit: ICRAR/University of Amsterdam.

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