Object Analysis

SS 433 is one of the most exotic star systems observed. It is an eclipsing binary system containing a stellar-mass black hole or neutron star and a massive companion star. It is a microquasar, the first of its kind to be discovered. It is located about 18,000 light-years away in the constellation Aquila.

The compact object is consuming the companion star, creating an accretion disk. Two jets of plasma are ejected from the disk at 26% of the speed of light. These jets are precessing (wobbling like a top) with a period of 162 days, tracing out a corkscrew pattern in space.

The system is located inside the supernova remnant W50, which is distorted by the powerful jets slamming into the surrounding gas. SS 433 provides a unique laboratory for studying relativistic jets and accretion physics on a scale much smaller and closer than distant quasars.