X-Ray Binaries Blowing Bubbles


Massive stars like the primary stars in High-Mass X-Ray Binaries blow a very strong wind that sweeps out a bubble within the interstellar medium.

If the star is moving through the interstellar medium, like a boat speeding through the water...

Linear stability analysis suggests that if the shock fronts are radiatively cooling, the bowshock will be dynamically unstable to clumping...

This is a very nice result, but stability can be very sensitive to the dimensionality of the problem...