The discs of hot gas around binary stars and black holes are much, much bigger than scientists had previously thought. This new illustration shows the disc around a super-dense white dwarf star. The disc sends off asteroid-sized eruptions of space dust, which are drawn towards the dwarf star's bigger companion star. It's a far cry from the well-manicured disc that scientists had expected to find. Click through for an image of the neat, Saturn-like grooves that scientists had originally predicted. Which do you think looks cooler?

[National Optical Astonomy Observatory]