BY: AMBER SHELTONSirius B

ABOUT SIRIUS B….Sirius B is a white dwarf. There was no such thing as Sirius B until 1862 when Alvan Clark

discovered it while testing one of the best optical telescopes in the

world, at the time. They didn’t know anything of it because

Sirius A is so bright.

ABOUT SIRIUS B….Sirius B orbits Sirius A. Since the discovery of Sirius B, scientists

have been agitated and frustrated because Sirius A is so bright that

they can’t observe and weigh Sirius A. Sirius is located in the

constellation Canis Major.

MORE ABOUT SIRIUS B….

Sirius has a surface temperature of 25,000 degrees Celcius, which

produces very low energy X-rays. Sirius B is 10, 000 times dimmer than Sirius A. Sirius B

has a mass equal to the mass of the Sun, packed into a diameter

that is 90% that of the Earth.

STAR FORMATION…

THEORY OF WHITE DWARF STARS:

The theory of white dwarf stars was developed by S.

Chandrasekhar, his name came from the Chandra X-ray

Observatory. The story of Sirius B came full known when it was

observed by Chandra in October 1999 during the test period.

ALL ABOUT SIRIUS B:• Sirius B is not a normal star; its spectrum and

luminosity indicates that it is hot, but extremely small.

• The reason is that the spectrum contains pressure-broadened hydrogen lines, implying a surface environment with a higher density

than what a normal star would have.• Assuming the spectrum of Sirius B being a

blackbody and using the well-established distance to Sirius, we think that from its luminosity, Sirius B’s radius is only about

5,800 km.• According to Kepler’s law, we can infer that

the mass of Sirius B is about 1.03 M.

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT SIRIUS B:

The gravity on Sirius B is 400,000 times more than gravity on Earth!! One teaspoon of a white dwarf

would way 5 tons In 1844, Sirius B was predicted because of the motion of Sirius A. Even though, Sirius B wasn’t seen

until 1862! The average mass of a star is 0.58

M, when Sirius B’s mass is 1.03 M.

PICTURES:

SUMMARY:

Sirius B is a white dwarf star. It is way less

brighter than Sirius A. It orbits Sirius A and

would way a lot just to pick a little bit of it up. It is a well-known star

that is good for observing.

Sirius B

QUIZ:1. Sirius B is in the main sequence.a. Trueb. False

QUIZ:2. What star does Sirius B orbit?a. Polarisb. Vegac. Sirius Ad. Altair

QUIZ:3. When was Sirius B discovered?a. 2010b. 1862c. 1831d. 1926

QUIZ:4. What type of star is Sirius B?a. Blue giantb. Red giantc. White dwarfd. Yellow-white super giant

QUIZ:5. What constellation is the star located

in?a. Canis Majorb. Ursa Majorc. Lyrad. Aquila

WORKS CITED: http://www.ufodigest.com/siriusb.html http://space.about.com/od/stars/p/

siriusinfo.htm http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2000/0065/ http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/

astro/whdwar.html#c2 http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/

astro/whdwar.html http://eagle.phys.utk.edu/guidry/astro411/

lectures/lecture_ch12.pdf