It is one of the most luminous celestial bodies in the night sky. Her name literally means “she who shines.” And it is no coincidence that it has been known this way since Antiquity. Sirius, the star that dominates the night, served as a reference for navigators for centuries.
Sirius is easily identifiable to the left and below Orion’s Belt. It is very visible towards the end of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. Its luminosity dominates the night sky along with the Moon. It is because it is relatively close to our Solar System. According to NASA calculations, this star has a mass twice that of our Sun.
accompanied
It is also called the ‘Dog Star’, because it is part of the constellation Canis Major. according to space. The Egyptians thought that the combination of the Sun and Sirius was responsible for the extreme heat during the summer season.
In 2003, the European Space Agency (ESA) took the first image of Sirius with the Hubble Telescope. In it, it was shown that the star is not alone. Billions of years ago, it has a much smaller companion, which was named ‘Sirius B’. Both stars rotate around each other every 50 years. Sirius a, just 8.6 light years from Earth, is the fifth closest known star system.
Sirius B is known to be a very faint white dwarf. With just 12 thousand kilometers in diameter, it has exhausted its nuclear fuel and is in the process of dying. That is why it is not visible in the celestial vault without specialized equipment. The overwhelming brilliance of Sirius, the star that dominates the night, suffocates the pale tinkle of its cosmic companion.
Opposites
Sirius B helped understand ‘dark energy’, a dominant repulsive force that pulls the universe apart. In contrast, it appears that Sirius A (its bright companion) is a really young star. Seen this way, this binary system shows the two extremes of life. One, in all the brilliance of her youth; the other, at the dawn of death.
