A Double Star System In The Constellation Canis Major
chandra_194 September 26th, 2000
Credit: NASA/SAO/CXC
The Chandra X-ray image of Sirius A & B, a double star system located 8.6 light years from Earth, shows a bright source and a dim source. The central bright source is Sirius B, a dense white dwarf star with a surface temperature of about 25,000 degrees Celsius. The dim source (slightly above and to the right of Sirius B) is Sirius A, a normal star more than twice as massive as the Sun. The spoke-like pattern of light is an instrument artifact due to the transmission grating.
The white dwarf, Sirius B, has a mass equal to the mass of the Sun packed into a diameter that is 90% that of the Earth. The gravity on the surface of Sirius B is 400,000 times that of Earth!
Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory
Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2000/0065/
Curator: Chandra X-ray Observatory, Cambridge, MA, USA
Image Use Policy: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html
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(1936 x 1531)
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Image Details
Distance
Position Details
Color Mapping
- ID
- 194
- Subject Category
- B.3.6.1. B.3.1.7. B.3.1.3.
- Subject Name
- Sirius A & B
- Credits
- NASA/SAO/CXC
- Release Date
- 2000-09-26
- Lightyears
- 8.6
- Redshift
- 8.6
- Reference Url
- http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2000/0065/
- Type
- Observation
- Image Quality
- Good
- Distance Notes
- Facility
- Chandra
- Instrument
- HRC
- Color Assignment
- Purple
- Band
- X-ray
- Bandpass
- X-ray
- Central Wavelength
- 0.8267
- Start Time
- 1999-10-28
- Integration Time
- 50400
- Dataset ID
- 1421
- Notes
- D
- Coordinate Frame
- ICRS
- Equinox
- J2000
- Reference Value
- 101.2883215, -16.7168521
- Reference Dimension
- 1936.0, 1531.0
- Reference Pixel
- 969.0, 766.5
- Scale
- 1.25842e-05, 1.2584226e-05
- Rotation
- -7.76
- Coordinate System Projection:
- TAN
- Quality
- Full
- FITS Header
- Notes
- WCS retrieved using CXCs PinpointWCS
- Creator (Curator)
- Chandra X-ray Observatory
- URL
- http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html
- Name
- Chandra X-ray Observatory Center
- cxcpub@cfa.harvard.edu
- Telephone
- 617.496.7941
- Address
- 60 Garden St.
- City
- Cambridge
- State/Province
- MA
- Postal Code
- 02138
- Country
- USA
- Rights
- http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html
- Publisher
- Chandra X-ray Center
- Publisher ID
- chandra
- Resource ID
- 0065_xray.tif
- Resource URL
- http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2000/0065/0065_xray.tif
- Related Resources
- Metadata Date
- 2012-08-22T12:32:17-04:00
- Metadata Version
- 1.2
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
