Actual image of a white dwarf feeding on material from a larger red giant 650 light years from Earth
(PHYSorg.com Space & Earth)

The SPHERE planet-hunting instrument on the European Southern Observatory`s Very Large Telescope captured this image of a white dwarf feeding on its companion star, a type of Red Giant called a Mira variable. Most stars exist in binary systems, and they spend an eternity serenely orbiting their common center of gravity. But something almost sinister is going on between these two.