Looking for a quick refresher about cataclysmic variable stars and the physical system they entail.

Question

anonymous · Answer

CV systems are binary star systems. In one instance, a red giant star is in close proximity to a white dwarf star. The white dwarf, although the smaller of the two, has an extremely high mass. This means it has a large gravitational influence on the red giant and its material. This causes the transfer of matter from the red giant to the white dwarf in a process called accretion. This accretion of matter forms an accretion disk around the white dwarf which continually rotates and flattens according to the law of the conservation of angular momentum. When the white dwarf reaches the Chandrasekhar Limit of 1.4 solar masses, it will immediately collapse in on itself and explode in a fantastic display called a Type Ia Supernova!

Hope this helped!

anonymous · Answer

Ahh, that's right! I did some research over the summer with a system located in MV Lyrae. Thank you! This was much better than reading some stupid thing on wikipedia!