Description: Accretion is the process of an astrophysical object attracting additional matter, typically gas or dust, by its gravitational pull. Accretion happens in many different astronomical scenarios including (but not limited to): gas accreting onto a black hole, stars in binary systems accreting matter from their companion, young stars accreting gas from a disk of material surrounding them, and galaxies accreting stars from other galaxies.

Related Terms:

• Active Galactic Nucleus
• Binary Star
• Black Hole
• Protostar
• Accretion Disk
• Cataclysmic Variable

Term and definition status: This term and its definition have been approved by a research astronomer and a teacher

The OAE Multilingual Glossary is a project of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) in collaboration with the IAU Office of Astronomy Outreach (OAO). The terms and definitions were chosen, written and reviewed by a collective effort from the OAE, the OAE Centers and Nodes, the OAE National Astronomy Education Coordinators (NAECs) and other volunteers. You can find a full list of credits here. All glossary terms and their definitions are released under a Creative Commons CC BY-4.0 license and should be credited to "IAU OAE".