Accretion Disk

From Slackerpedia Galactica

One of those things in astronomy we just can't get rid of, no matter how hard we try. They are formed by stuff, gas, dust, particles, telemarketers, all spiraling down onto a gravity source. Accretion disks can be seen around stars of various types like black holes (both stellar and galactic), neutron stars, white dwarfs, and red giants among others. In fact they are almost everywhere much to Travis' chagrin.

Accretion disks have been implicated in some cataclysmic variables such as RS Ophiuchi. Material is sucked from a companion star onto the receiving star until it gets fed up and explodes in a nova.

Black hole accretion disks will have jets of radiation shooting perpendicular to the plane of the disk.