Close-up of jets

When a white dwarf in a binary star system acquires more material than it can handle it creates a violent outburst of surplus gas. With this outburst the white dwarf attempts to correct the imbalance. Channelled by the magnetic field of the star, the ejecta take the form of spectacular symmetric jets extending hundreds of billions of kilometres from the white dwarf’s polar regions. More information and download options: Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser