What is Sirius?

Sirius is the brightest star in the sky, of course, except our sun. It is so clear that it can be seen in daylight, when the sky is very bright, the observer is at high altitude and the sun is close to the horizon. Sirius is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Majoris, a dog. In accordance with this is sometimes called a dog star. The Hubble Space Telescope of Sirius is one of the best of any star except the sun.

In addition to being one of the brightest stars, Sirius is also among the closest. Sirius is only 8.6 light years from Earth, making it the eighth closest star. Its closeness has sometimes led Sirius to be listed in speculation on interstellar travel.

Although it was often referred to as the only star, Sirius is actually a binary system, including Sirius A and Sirius B. Sirius B is a white dwarf that was created when a larger star burns most of its nuclear fuel. Sirius B has a matter similar to the sun, but just like othersWhite dwarfs, volume only around the ground. It continues September as a result of the remaining heat when it was a stellar star hydrogen (main sequence). It is one of the smallest white dwarfs, because the typical mass of the white dwarf is 0.5 - 0.6 solar energy. When Sirius B was the main sequential star, it was quite larger than its companion in ~ 5 solar mass.

Sirius B, a more pronounced star in the binary system, has a weight of about twice the weight of the sun and absolute luminosity about 25 times larger. In astrophysics, the stars of the luminous intensity tend to exponentially increase with a linear increase in mass, because the fusion reactions are sensitive to the increase in the temperature and pressure of the stars found in the cores of massive stars.

Because Sirius is massive than the sun, it connects hydrogen faster, and therefore has a higher surface temperature - about 9,940 k compared to 5,780 K.