Sirius Binary Star System
by Science Photo Library
Title
Sirius Binary Star System
Artist
Science Photo Library
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Sirius binary star system, Hubble Space Telescope image. Sirius A (centre, Alpha Canis Majoris), in the constellation Canis Major, is the brightest star in the night sky and only 8.6 light years from Earth. It has a very small, faint companion, Sirius B (small dot at lower left). Sirius B, only 12,000 kilometres in diameter, is a white dwarf star, the collapsed core of a star. Normally, the companion star would be obscured by the brightness of its companion, but Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 instrument was used to locate the star, and other instruments were then used to measure the gravitational redshift of its light, and hence its mass. Sirius B has a mass 98% of that of our Sun. The results were published in December 2005.
Uploaded
October 7th, 2018
Embed
Share
Similar Images
Comments
There are no comments for Sirius Binary Star System. Click here to post the first comment.
Recently Viewed
