Astronomy Picture of the Day ·

Accretion Disk Binary System

The Astronomy Picture of the Day for December 19, 1999 is “Accretion Disk Binary System,” an image. It is credited to Drawing Credit: ST ScI, NASA. The original explanation runs about 170 words.

Accretion Disk Binary System
Credit: Drawing Credit: ST ScI, NASA Shown from science.nasa.gov. Not hosted by OpenOrbit.

From the explanation

“Our Sun is unusual in that it is alone – most stars occur in multiple or binary systems . In a binary system, the higher mass star will evolve faster and will eventually become a compact object – either a white dwarf star, a neutron star , or black hole .”

— APOD editors, December 19, 1999

Read the full explanation on science.nasa.gov

At a glance

Date
December 19, 1999
Type
Image
Credit
Credit: Drawing Credit: ST ScI, NASA
Copyright
No copyright notice on the entry. Check the credited institution’s own usage rules before reusing it.
Explanation length
About 170 words

All of December 1999 → · 1999 by month → · Full archive since 1995 →

Topics in this entry

The SunBlack holes

Topics are matched from words in the title and explanation.

On this day: December 19 in other years

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Source

Copy taken Oct 28, 2026, 2:39 AM EDT. The image and explanation belong to their creators. OpenOrbit is not affiliated with or endorsed by NASA.