Aster › Space program › Sirius
Sirius
Position on the route: 97/130 · level needed 1120 · journey (Mk0 engine) 309.5 h
By the numbers
| Distance | 8.6 light-years |
|---|---|
| Brightness | ≈ 25 Suns |
| Companion | Sirius B (white dwarf) |
| Orbit | 50 years |
The story
Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky: about 25 times the Sun’s luminosity and only 8.6 light-years away. A blue-white A-type star with twice the Sun’s mass. For the ancient Egyptians it was ‘Sothis’, the herald of the Nile’s flood season.
Its companion Sirius B, found by Alvan Clark in 1862, was the first white dwarf known: the mass of the Sun, the size of Earth, extraordinarily dense. They circle each other in 50 years; Sirius B is a living example of what is left when a Sun-like star dies.
Missions
- Hubble: detailed images of Sirius B
- Gaia: orbit measurements
Colony note
A star has no surface; an orbital station, Mk2 shield.
☠ A star: no surface. A station in orbit, in blue-white light, beside its white-dwarf companion Sirius B.
What probes bring back
- 8.6 light-years: the brightest star in the night sky, about 25 times the Sun’s luminosity; its companion Sirius B is the best-known white dwarf (found 1862).
- The ‘Sothis’ of the ancient Egyptian calendar, tied to the flood of the Nile.