Figure showing the different size scales of accreting objects. Credit: Simone Scaringi
Accretion is the growth in mass of an object by gravitationally collecting material from its surroundings. “In our paper (Astrophysical accretion is a universal process in objects from proto-stars to supermassive black holes), we discovered a relationship that spans the range of different types of accreting objects, from proto-stars, much like our sun was at its time of birth, to white dwarfs to supermassive black holes with a billion times the mass of the sun located in galaxies millions of light-years away,” Maccarone said.
“In these systems there is some characteristic timescale for the variability – typically the large brightenings and fadings occur with that timescale...
Read More
Recent Comments