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In three binary systems, a white dwarf, the dead core of a star, steals gas from its companion. The companion is so dim that it cannot be seen with an ordinary telescope. The James Webb Space Telescope looked at these pairs in infrared light, like a night-vision camera. And for the first time, it caught the light from the donor stars themselves.

Previously, astronomers thought that in the infrared, it was the donor star that shone. It turns out the light comes from a disk of hot gas swirling around the white dwarf. This disk, like a whirlpool, spirals in the stolen matter. It shows bright helium lines — two peaks, like twin flames at the edges of the whirlpool. The donor, in contrast, leaves only a faint sodium trace, like a glint on a cheek.

Such a magnetic field prevents the disk from getting too close. Gas stalls at a distance, like a car stopped at a barrier. This explains why the spectra show no fast jets: the matter simply never gets a chance to accelerate. The three donor stars turned out to be similar to each other, even though they were previously thought to be different.

Now it is clear: the infrared excess in such systems points to the disk, not the donor star. This means the donor stars are even fainter than previously assumed. They are like quiet partners in a dance, visible only in the glint of sodium.