Accretion Disk

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An accretion disk is the term for a rapidly rotating disk of material that forms around a high-mass compact object, often a black hole. Accretion disks can also be associated with other high mass, compact objects such as white dwarf stars and neutron stars.[1] In order to conserve angular momentum, as material in the disk moves towards the central mass, it's rotational speed increases as does it's temperature. As a result, accretion disks often emit radiation in the x-ray and gamma ray portions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

References

  1. NASA Dictionary.
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