Simulation of Red Giant Star Traveling Through a Fragmenting Accretion Disk

Georgia Tech’s simulation of a red giant undergoing multiple collisions with clumps in a fragmenting accretion disk. As the star pummels the disk, it develops a bow shock ahead of the star and a cometary tail behind it. The tail is essentially the gas that is stripped from the star as it passes through and loses a portion of its overall mass. For more: