Sirius
The brightest star in our sky
A binary system 8.6 light-years away. Sirius A is twice the Sun's mass; its white dwarf companion Sirius B is the size of Earth but as heavy as the Sun.
Image: NASA / Hubble
Vital statistics
Type
A1V + White Dwarf
Distance
8.6 light-years
Mass vs Sun
2.06×
Luminosity vs Sun
25.4×
Apparent magnitude
-1.46
Did you know
Known as the 'Dog Star' from the constellation Canis Major.
Fact 01
Egyptians timed the Nile floods by its heliacal rising.
Fact 02
Sirius B was the first white dwarf ever discovered.
Fact 03
Research & publications
Jump straight into peer-reviewed papers, preprints and authoritative references for Sirius.
arXiv (preprints)
Open-access preprints in physics & astrophysics.
NASA ADS
The definitive bibliographic database for astronomy.
Google Scholar
Cross-publisher academic search.
Nature
Peer-reviewed articles in Nature & sister journals.
Wikipedia
Encyclopedic overview & onward references.
Tip: ask the Research AI for a curated reading list → /research
