As the normal star loses mass, the white dwarf's gravitational attraction captures this material, which then spirals onto the surface of the white dwarf. These binary star systems are ideal laboratories for observing and understanding the process of accretion because the geometry of the stellar orbits can be determined accurately. A device etched with many fine lines that is used to break light into its component wavelengths, or spectrum. Any part of the electromagnetic spectrum can be categorized according to the size of its wavelengths. The shorter its wavelength, the higher its energy.
Visible light is just a small piece of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Its wavelengths are from about 4,000 to 7,000 angstroms. Equivalent to about 5.9 trillion miles. This is the most stable period of a star's evolutionary history. Our sun is a main sequence star. A general term describing a diffuse cloud of dust and gas in interstellar space.