Day 23 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: a spray of glowing filaments. R Aquarii is a symbiotic binary star that lies roughly 700 light-years from Earth, surrounded by a large, dynamic nebula. The primary star is an aging red giant, and its companion is a compact, burned-out star known as a white dwarf. When the white dwarf swings closest to the red giant along its 44-year orbital period, it gravitationally siphons off hydrogen gas. This material accumulates in the accretion disk surrounding the white dwarf, until it undergoes an energetic outburst and jet ejection. This outburst ejects powerful jets, seen as filaments shooting out from the binary system, forming loops and trails as the plasma emerges in streamers.
See the full advent calendar here, where a new image will be revealed each day until December 25.
