In astrophysics, the Bondi accretion, named after Hermann Bondi, is spherical accretion onto a compact object traveling through the interstellar medium. It is generally used in the context of neutron star and black hole accretion. To achieve an approximate form of the Bondi accretion rate, accretion is assumed to occur at a rate
where
or
The accretion rate therefore becomes
These are only scaling relations rather than rigorous definitions. A more complete solution can be found in Bondi's original work and two other papers.