John M. Blondin, Marcedes T. Richards, Michael L. Malinowski (North Carolina State University)

The binary star Algol (Beta Persei) was the first eclipsing variable star ever discovered, and it's still the most famous one. Algol brightens and fades like clockwork every 2.87 days, and its changes are very plain to the unaided eye. The variation in its brightness is caused by one star in the system periodically blocking the other as they orbit. Astronomers have discovered that matter from one star actually flows onto the other star! This supercomputer calculation shows what that matter flow might look like.

Stellar distortion

The calculations shown in this visualization demonstrate that, when matter flows from one star in the Algol system to the other, the stars become distorted from their normal spherical shapes. The matter flows through a single critical point between the two stars, called the inner Lagrangian point, and interacts with the heat and radiation from the stars to form twisted braids, loops and streamers.

Charles Liu