What are some cool facts about Sirius?

Sirius A radiates about 26 times as much energy as our Sun. Sirius B is the first white dwarf to be discovered, a type of star first understood by Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar in 1930. Sirius B is also the closest white dwarf star to Earth. Sirius A produces energy by fusing hydrogen atoms in its core, much like our Sun.

What is special about Sirius the Dog Star?

Sirius, also known as the Dog Star or Sirius A, is the brightest star in Earth’s night sky. The name means “glowing” in Greek — a fitting description, as only a few planets, the full moon and the International Space Station outshine this star. Because Sirius is so bright, it was well-known to the ancients.

What type of star is Sirius B?

white dwarf stars
Sirius (or Sirius A) is a main-sequence star of spectral type early A. Sirius B is one of the largest known white dwarf stars and is 10,000 times dimmer than Sirius. It’s so dim that astronomers couldn’t estimate its mass until 2005 by using data from the Hubble Space Telescope.

Is Sirius B the hottest star?

Sirius is classified by astronomers as an “A” type star. That means it’s a much hotter star than our sun; its surface temperature is about 17,000 degrees Fahrenheit (9,400 Celsius) in contrast to our sun’s 10,000 degrees F (5,500 C).

What is the color of Sirius B?

Sirius B Physical Properties Based on the star’s spectral type of DA2 , Sirius B’s colour and type is white white dwarf.

What is the temperature of Sirius B?

about 44,900 degrees Fahrenheit
Based on those measurements, astronomers have calculated Sirius B’s mass at 98 percent that of the sun. Analysis of the white dwarf’s spectrum also has allowed astronomers to refine the estimate for its surface temperature to about 44,900 degrees Fahrenheit (25,200 degrees Kelvin).

What is the weight of Sirius B?

Sirius B is one of the most massive white dwarfs known. With a mass of 1.02 M ☉, it is almost double the 0.5–0.6 M ☉ average. This mass is packed into a volume roughly equal to the Earth’s.

What is the size of Sirius B?

12,000 kilometers
Despite this large mass Sirius B is only 12,000 kilometers in diameter, making it smaller than even the Earth and much denser. Sirius B’s powerful gravitational field is 350,000 times greater than Earth’s, meaning that a 68 kilogram person would weigh 25 million kilograms standing on its surface.

What size of star is Sirius B?

Sirius B, a white dwarf, is very faint because of its tiny size, only 7,500 miles in diameter. White dwarfs are the leftover remnants of stars similar to the sun.

How long will Sirius B live?

From Sirius B’s mass and temperature (25,000 kelvins), the astronomers estimate the star became a white dwarf around 124 million years ago. Thus, the star shone as a main-sequence star and then a red giant for 101 to 126 million years — the expected lifetime of a star born with about 5 solar masses.