What processes cause material within an accretion disk to spiral inward toward the central body?

Answer

Friction and turbulence

The material within the accretion disk spirals inward because friction and turbulence within the disk itself effectively bleed off the angular momentum, allowing gravity to continue pulling the matter closer to the center.

What processes cause material within an accretion disk to spiral inward toward the central body?

#Videos

What Is Accretion? - Physics Frontier - YouTube

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