Binary Star Research Paper

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Located in the southern hemisphere, it was included in Ptolemy's 48 constellations in the second century, and is recognised among the 88 today. It contains 8 main stars and has 32 stars with Bayer/Flamsteed designations. These unseen stars come from a cluster known as M41 which is about 2,300 light years away. Even a small telescope will reveal the swarm of several thousand stars just under Sirius. Canis Major's second-brightest star is Adhara, placed within the Dogs leg. Adhara is 425 light years away, and were it to be the same distance from the Earth as Sirius, it would shine 200 times brighter. Also, if our eyes were tuned to Ultraviolet light, Adhara would outshine every other star in the sky due to it emitting more UV rays than visible …show more content…

It's 8.6 light years away which is only twice as far as our closest stellar neighbour. It may not contain the most stars, spread the furthest across space or be the easiest the locate, but it's a part of something bigger. Sirius is actually a double star, labelled Sirius A and Sirius B, a binary star which is not seen as one by the naked eye. While Sirius A is a white main-sequence star of spectral type A1V, Sirius B is a a faint white dwarf companion of spectral type DA2. Sirius A is around 20 times larger than the Sun and 25 times more luminous as well. Sirius B used to be a Red Giant which became unstable and ejected its outer layers of dust and gas as a planetry nebula. This left behind a hot, dense solid core - a White Dwarf. The jewel inside the rock had been revealed. Sadly the White Dwarf will continually fade away but Sirius itself is gradually moving closer to the Solar System. This means it will slightly increase in brightness over the next 60,000 years. The distance will begin to recede after that, however it will continue to be the brightest star in the Earth's sky for the next 210,000

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