Watch the R Aquarii binary star system evolve in Hubble imagery time-lapse - YouTube - Space.com - astrophysics

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured imagery of the R Aquarri binary star system from 2014-2023.The images have been time-lapsed to show the evolution of the region.R Aquarri is a symbiotic star system in the constellation Aquarius.It is believed to be a coupling of a white dwarf star with a Mira-type variable star,a red giant.The orbital period is about 44 years.It has a distance of about 218 parsecs/711 light years,so is right next door.By its gravitational pull,the white dwarf draws in material from the red giant and sometimes ejects some of the surplus in loops to form the nebula seen in the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope images.The red giant star both pulsates and changes temperature,causing a very large change in brightness.Its brightness has a total range of 750 times.The pulsations occur every 390 days,give or take some days.*Material by Space.com and edited and augmented by Andrew Taylor