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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
Several authors (Begelman et al. 1979; Martin and Rees 1979; Bandwagon 1979) suggest that the precessing relativistic gas jets observed in SS 433 (Abell and Margon 1979) arise from de Sitter and/or Lense-Thirring precession of one member of a close binary system. For a semi-detached system of a few solar masses, we find the mean density of the lobe-filling secondary, ρ̄2 ∽ 3 × 104 gm cm-3. The secondary may thus be a low mass white dwarf, transferring material to the vicinity of its companion at a supercritical rate because of gravitational radiation losses.