Mass Transfer in a close Binary Star System

This animation illustrates how mass can be transferred from one star to another when the first star reaches its red giant stage and fills its Roche lobe.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• astronomy
• binary
• star
• mass
• transfer
• aviation
• space

[Lurco8]

Shouldn't the transfered mass fall in a form of an accretion disk?

[mrg3]

@Lurco8 It probably should, although I am not sure it necessarily would if the receiving star is not a compact object (I am not an astronomer). I was primarily working on conveying the basic facets of mass exchange to my students.

I also have to confess that I have not yet come up with a satisfactory (to me) way of animating the accretion disk with POV-Ray (the program I use to create the animation frames).

[tedperkins]

So does this system behave sort of like an hourglass?

[mrg3]

Well, not exactly. Each star's gravity dominates in its vicinity. As the giant expands past its "lobe" of dominance, its gaseous matter will spill into the other star.

A better analogy would be an hourglass on its side, where one side fills with water until the level reaches the connection and then spills over to the other side.

[TOPBLAZER85]

thanks that helped me understand the effect abit betta