These X-ray binaries are two stars which rotate around each other.
Material is drawn from the normal star and spirals in via an accretion disk onto the compact star.
Intense X-ray emission is released from the inner region of the accretion disk where it falls onto the collapsed star. The set of small GIF images used to create the X-ray binary inline animation is available. See also the supernova and black hole inline animations. You are visitor number 31457. Cosmic Journeys Part of the NASA OSS Structure and Evolution of the Universe theme.