What is "x-ray binary"

n. (context astronomy English) A binary star system in which one star of the pair is an optically invisible X-ray source.

X-ray binaries are a class of binary stars that are luminous in X-rays. The X-rays are produced by matter falling from one component, called the donor (usually a relatively normal star), to the other component, called the accretor, which is very compact: a neutron star or black hole. The infalling matter releases gravitational potential energy, up to several tenths of its rest mass, as X-rays. The lifetime and the mass-transfer rate in an X-ray binary depends on the evolutionary status of the donor star, the mass ratio between the stellar components, and their orbital separation. (Hydrogen fusion releases only about 0.7 percent of rest mass.) An estimated 10 positrons escape per second from a typical low-mass X-ray binary.