How to Use accretion disk in a Sentence

accretion disk

noun
  • This build up of matter on the edge of black holes are known as accretion disks.
    — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 21 Sep. 2018
  • There's clearly a lot left to learn about black holes and their accretion disks.
    — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 10 June 2019
  • Next up, there's the cloud of dust and gas itself, called an accretion disk.
    — Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, 5 Apr. 2019
  • The accretion disk is the dark area at the narrowest point of the wing.
    — Elizabeth Gamillo, Smithsonian Magazine, 16 Dec. 2021
  • Some of that light hits the accretion disk, which absorbs it, heats up, and then emits light of its own.
    — Alison Klesman, Discover Magazine, 5 Feb. 2019
  • The dust and gas in a black hole’s accretion disk don’t help with detection.
    — Elizabeth Rayne, Ars Technica, 6 Feb. 2024
  • The particles are in a thin accretion disk, where the swirling pace nears the speed of light.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN, 25 Sep. 2019
  • The plasma that makes up the accretion disk comes from farther out in the galaxy.
    — David Garofalo, The Conversation, 31 Mar. 2025
  • Because of this, any change in the accretion disk will later be echoed within the torus.
    — Quanta Magazine, 21 Nov. 2018
  • Streams of gas blowing from the star are captured by the black hole and spun into an accretion disk.
    — Discover Magazine, 9 Apr. 2019
  • The gas and dust swirl together at high speeds, forming the accretion disk that feeds the black hole.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN, 19 Feb. 2025
  • Flaring bursts arise as the low-mass one punches through the larger’s accretion disk.
    — Ethan Siegel, Big Think, 4 Aug. 2025
  • Not all of the matter in an accretion disk is channeled to the black hole, however.
    — Robert Lea, Space.com, 20 Feb. 2026
  • This pulse of light travels from the accretion disk to gas in the wider environment of the black hole.
    — Robert Lea, Space.com, 20 June 2026
  • Not all the matter in the accretion disk is fed to the supermassive black hole, though.
    — Robert Lea, Space.com, 17 Mar. 2026
  • This generates an accretion disk, a glowing structure at the edges of a black hole.
    — Jack Knudson, Discover Magazine, 17 Jan. 2024
  • This black hole is surrounded by dense gas heated by the object’s accretion disk.
    — Chris Young, Interesting Engineering, 30 Sep. 2025
  • The black hole sucks matter from the giant star, forming a swirling accretion disk that drains into the black hole.
    — Popular Science, 24 Aug. 2020
  • However, the dense plasma that surrounds them, known as an accretion disk, does.
    — Joshua Hawkins, BGR, 10 May 2022
  • That leads to the axis of spin of the magnetar and that of the accretion disk being misaligned.
    — Robert Lea, Space.com, 12 Mar. 2026
  • Not all of the matter in accretion disks is destined to become a black hole snack, however.
    — Robert Lea, Space.com, 19 Jan. 2026
  • These accretion disks gradually feed some matter to the black hole.
    — Robert Lea, Space.com, 14 June 2026
  • Black holes feed off of material from the accretion disk, pulling spirals of gas inside that heat up.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN, 12 June 2020
  • In the case of a star and a black hole, matter from the star forms a ring of material called an accretion disk around the black hole.
    — Quanta Magazine, 2 Mar. 2016
  • This could be caused by material rotating away from us in the accretion disk.
    — John Timmer, Ars Technica, 17 June 2024
  • This led the team to conclude that these peaks occurred when the accretion disk was directly aligned with the telescope.
    — Isaac Schultz / Gizmodo, Quartz, 23 May 2024
  • The simulated black hole yanked and pulled the very fabric of space around it, which caused the accretion disk to wobble.
    — Matt Hrodey, Discover Magazine, 25 Sep. 2023
  • The team also found that the strength of the magnetic field increased the brightness of the black hole's accretion disk.
    — Robert Lea, Space.com, 21 Feb. 2025
  • The rest makes a tasty meal for the black hole, which pulls the material into its hot, glowing accretion disk made of gas.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN, 26 Sep. 2019
  • This, in turn, can form an accretion disk around the black hole that emits powerful X-rays and visible light.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 18 June 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'accretion disk.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: