Sirius: The brightest star
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.
Answer questions like ...
- What is the approximate age of Sirius?
- What is the color of Sirius?
- What is the name of the star system that Sirius is part of?
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