accretion disk
Use Accretion_disk in a sentenceaccretion disk
noun Astronomy.
the rapidly spinning disk of gas that forms around the more compact component of a close binary star system as mass is transferred to the compact companion from the primary star.
Origin:
1975–80
1975–80
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source
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Link To Accretion_disk
American Heritage
Science Dictionary
| accretion disk
A spinning disk of gas and dust surrounding a celestial object with an intense gravitational field, such as a star or a black hole. In binary star systems, the gravitational attraction of the denser star can pull matter from the other star into an accretion disk in its own orbit. The material in the accretion disk eventually spirals into the attracting star and adds to its mass. The gas in accretion disks that surround black holes becomes condensed and heated as it is sucked into the hole, emitting x-rays and other radiation that provide evidence for the presence of the black hole. |
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
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Accretion_disk
is always a great word to know.
So is doohickey. Does it mean:
| a gadget; dingus; thingumbob. |
| a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question. |
Example sentences
Such particles never reach the event horizon,they are spun off in the polar jets from the accretion disk.
The material settles around the pulsar's middle in a so-called accretion disk.
Infrared observations of a binary star reveal a larger, thicker disk of cool dusty material surrounds much of the accretion disk.
Gravity pulls gases together to form the accretion disk that becomes our solar system.
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