Re: Curious about Sirius

From:Ballnclaw@aol.com

According to the The Bright Star Catalog, Sirius B has an effective 
temperature of about 32,000 K making it much hotter than the sun so that the 
star emits about 900 times more radiant energy per square meter of surface 
than you or I do. 

The very small luminosity of the star then must mean that the star has a very 
small surface area, that is, that the star is quite small in size. This type 
of star IS known as a white dwarf. Sirius B must have almost the mass of the 
sun packed into a volume smaller than that of the earth. The density of 
Sirius B must correspond to about 5000 tons per cubic inch.  A white dwarf 
star like Sirius B is a stellar corpse that is very slowly cooling by the 
radiation of heat from those around it now and in our ancient past. 

The stellar impact still does not deny the brightness of a white or red dwarf 
shining like the sun and of it's influence in the past, present or future!




Eric C. Kellar
Univesity of Pittsburgh Medical Center




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