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Sirius: The brightest star

By Space

Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. Its name is derived from the Greek word Seirios, meaning lit. 'glowing' or 'scorching'. With a visual apparent magnitude of −1.46, Sirius is almost twice as bright as Canopus, the next brightest star. Sirius is a binary star consisting of a main-sequence star of spectral type A0 or A1, termed Sirius A, and a faint white dwarf companion of spectral type DA2, termed Sirius B. The distance between the two varies between 8.2 and 31.5 astronomical units as they orbit every 50 years.

Sirius: The brightest star

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Sample questions

  1. In which constellation is Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky?
  2. Approximately how many times the Sun’s mass is Sirius A?
  3. What is the brightest star in the night sky?

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