Sirius
Sirius is a binary star system in Canis Major, Orion's larger dog. It is the brightest star in the night sky; with a magnitude of −1.46.
Sirius A is about twice as massive as the Sun and has an absolute visual magnitude of 1.42. It is 25 times more luminous than the Sun,[1] but has a significantly lower luminosity than other bright stars such as Canopus or Rigel. The system is between 200 and 300 million years old.[1] It was originally composed of two bright bluish stars. The more massive of these, Sirius B, used up its resources and became a red giant. Then it shed its outer layers and collapsed into its present state as a white dwarf, about 120 million years ago.[1]
History[change]
The Egyptians called this star Sopdet. They relied on this star to predict when the flood season would start.
Sirius is sometimes called the Dog Star. The phrase the dog days of summer means the hottest days of summer. Some of the ancient peoples thought that the heat from Sirius would add to the heat of the Sun.
Other pages[change]
References[change]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Liebert, J. et al. (2005). "The age and progenitor mass of Sirius B". The Astrophysical Journal 630 (1): L69–L72. doi:10.1086/462419.
