Sirius is the brightest star [
http://www.astro.wi…] in the night sky. Sirius [
http://www.louisvil…] is visible on the far left of the above photograph, to the left of the constellation [
http://www.astro.wi…] of Orion [
http://www.astro.wi…] and Comet Hale-Bopp [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. Intrinsically, Sirius [
http://www.physics.…] is over 20 times brighter than our Sun [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] and over twice as massive. As Sirius [
http://www.wshs.fcp…] is 8.7 light years distant, it is not the closest star system - the Alpha Centauri [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] system holds this distinction. Sirius [
http://www.star.le.…] is called the Dog Star because of its prominence in the constellation of Canis Majoris [
http://www.astro.wi…] (Big Dog). In 1862, Sirius [
http://www.astro.wi…] was discovered to be a binary star system with a companion star, Sirius B [
http://www.dcn.davi…], 10,000 times dimmer than the bright primary, Sirius A. Sirius B was the first white dwarf star discovered, a type of star first understood by Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] in 1930. While studying Sirius [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] in 1718, Edmond Halley [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] discovered that stars move with respect to each other. There is conflicting evidence that Sirius appeared more red [
http://www.louisvil…] only 2000 years ago.
Explanation
Sirius is the brightest star [
http://www.astro.wi…] in the night sky. Sirius [
http://www.louisvil…] is visible on the far left of the above photograph, to the left of the constellation [
http://www.astro.wi…] of Orion [
http://www.astro.wi…] and Comet Hale-Bopp [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. Intrinsically, Sirius [
http://www.physics.…] is over 20 times brighter than our Sun [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] and over twice as massive. As Sirius [
http://www.wshs.fcp…] is 8.7 light years distant, it is not the closest star system - the Alpha Centauri [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] system holds this distinction. Sirius [
http://www.star.le.…] is called the Dog Star because of its prominence in the constellation of Canis Majoris [
http://www.astro.wi…] (Big Dog). In 1862, Sirius [
http://www.astro.wi…] was discovered to be a binary star system with a companion star, Sirius B [
http://www.dcn.davi…], 10,000 times dimmer than the bright primary, Sirius A. Sirius B was the first white dwarf star discovered, a type of star first understood by Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] in 1930. While studying Sirius [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] in 1718, Edmond Halley [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] discovered that stars move with respect to each other. There is conflicting evidence that Sirius appeared more red [
http://www.louisvil…] only 2000 years ago.
Explanation
