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accretion disk

noun

Definition of accretion disk

: a disk of usually gaseous matter surrounding a massive celestial object (such as a black hole) in which the matter gradually spirals in toward and accretes onto the object as a result of gravitational attraction

Recent Examples on the Web

//In the case of a star and a black hole, matter from the star forms a ring of material called an accretion disk around the black hole.
— Quanta Magazine, "After Black Holes Collide, a Puzzling Flash," 2 Mar. 2016
//There's clearly a lot left to learn about black holes and their accretion disks.
— David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, "For the First Time, See the Mysterious Disks That Circle Black Holes," 10 June 2019
//Because of this, any change in the accretion disk will later be echoed within the torus.
— Quanta Magazine, "Galactic Beacons Get Snuffed Out in a Cosmic Eyeblink," 21 Nov. 2018
//This image is a quite accurate depiction of what scientists think a black hole with an accretion disk of hot gas and dust around it might look like.
— Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, "Drawing the Invisible: The Many Ways Artists Have Imagined Black Holes," 9 Apr. 2019
//Two planets, PDS 70b and PDS 70c, are orbiting the star, sucking up material and creating a gap in the accretion disk between 1.9 and 3.8 billion miles wide.
— Jason Daley, Smithsonian, "Astronomers Snap a Rare Picture of Two Baby Planets," 7 June 2019
//As the material from the accretion disk falls into the black hole, jets of energy form along the axis of the merger.
— Quanta Magazine, "After Black Holes Collide, a Puzzling Flash," 2 Mar. 2016
//Scientists have typically detected them through incredibly bright lights surrounding them, emanating from a black hole's accretion disk.
— David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, "How They Got the Black Hole Picture That Changed Science," 10 Apr. 2019
//But never before has a third, massive accretion disk orbiting the entire system been discovered.
— Jay Bennett, Popular Mechanics, "A Triple Solar System, Stacked On Top of Itself, Is Forming in our Galaxy," 11 Oct. 2016

First Known Use of accretion disk

1972, in the meaning defined above

Dictionary Entries near accretion disk

accretionary hypothesis