For a steady, spherically symmetric radial inflow, conservation of mass makes the mass accretion rate independent of radius:
Atomic hydrogen gives . The Newtonian free-fall speed from rest at infinity is , obtained by setting the specific mechanical energy to zero. Hence the spherical free-fall accretion rate is
Using the given values gives , , and
The area factor assumes a full spherical inflow with negligible angular momentum. With only a local number density and speed, an arbitrary nonspherical inflow's total rate is not fixed; one instead integrates over the inflow surface. This is a flux estimate, rather than the pressure-selected Bondi accretion solution.