Chandra Release - April 28, 2005

Visual Description: Mira

 Two panels of a double star system are displayed side by side. The Chandra X-ray Observatory image at left shows two stars, as blobs with bright red-orange cores and blue rims connected by a dimmer blue bridge, while the right panel is an artist’s concept of the same double star system. The Chandra image shows Mira A (right star), a highly evolved red giant star, and Mira B (left star), a white dwarf. The artist's conception of the Mira star system shows a bright blue disk surrounding a tiny white star (Mira B) and a much larger orange star (Mira A) having material pulled off it, onto the disk. Mira A is losing gas rapidly from its upper atmosphere via a stellar wind. Mira B exerts a gravitational tug that creates a gaseous bridge between the two stars. Gas from the wind and bridge accumulates in an accretion disk around Mira B and collisions between rapidly moving particles in the disk produce X-rays. The stars in the Mira AB system are about twice as far apart as Pluto is from the Sun.