Produced by: Tarun Mishra
Credit: NASA, ESA
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a close-up look at R Aquarii, a symbiotic binary star system located around 700 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius.
R Aquarii consists of a red giant star and a white dwarf. These two stars interact, creating a dynamic nebula and periodic eruptions that release gas and stellar material into space.
Hubble’s observations, spanning from 2014 to 2023, have been compiled into a timelapse video that shows the binary system’s changing structure, including brightening, dimming, and nebula variations.
Credit: NASA, ESA
R Aquarii undergoes eruptions that eject glowing gas filaments into space. These filaments, energized by radiation from the star system, create loops and trails of plasma that extend outward in spiral patterns.
Credit: ESo
The white dwarf siphons hydrogen gas from the red giant during its orbit, forming an accretion disk. This material eventually triggers powerful outbursts, ejecting plasma jets into space.
These outbursts release elements like carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen into space—critical components for the formation of planets and life, illustrating how stars contribute to the chemical makeup of the universe.
The nebula surrounding R Aquarii, known as Cederblad 211, stretches up to 400 billion kilometers from the system’s core. This structure may be the remnant of a past nova event.
The red giant in the system pulsates over a 390-day cycle, changing in brightness by a factor of 750. These changes are reflected in the nebula as parts of it are illuminated by the rotating beam of light from the binary system.
Credit: NASA