Artwork of binary star AR Sco 插畫檔

AR Sco is a curious interacting binary star, depicted in this artists impression. The system consists of a red dwarf (left), distorted in shape due to the gravity of its companion, a highly magnetized white dwarf (right). The system is somewhat like a so-called intermediate polar in which gas is transferred (accreted) from the red- to the white dwarf, resulting in the emission of pulsed radiation at the spin period of the latter. But in the case of AR Sco, no accretion is detected. The white dwarfs magnetic poles each emit a beam of light, like from a lighthouse, which illuminates the surface of the red dwarf and causes its atmosphere to accelerate electrons