Sirius Matters (Astrophysics and Space Science Library)

✍ Scribed by Noah Brosch

• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 225
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Since very early times Sirius was a point of attraction in the night sky. It served to synchronize calendars in antiquity and was the subject of many myths and legends, including some modern ones. It was perceived as a red star for more than 400 years, but such reports were relegated to the Mediterranean region. Astronomically, Sirius is a very bright star. This, and its present close distance to us, argues in favor of it being the target of detailed studies of stellar structure and evolution. Its binary nature, with a companion that is one of the more massive white dwarfs, is an additional reason for such studies. This book collects the published information on Sirius in an attempt to derive a coherent picture of how this system came to look as it does.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents......Page 7
List of figures......Page 9
List of tables......Page 16
1. Introduction......Page 17
2.1 Introduction......Page 20
2.2 Egypt and the ancient Middle East......Page 24
2.3 Ancient Greece and Rome......Page 35
2.4 Africa and Arabia......Page 42
2.6 North and South America......Page 44
2.8 Jewish connections......Page 46
2.9 Conclusions......Page 47
3.1 The issue of historical redness......Page 49
3.2 Explanations for redness......Page 62
3.3 The binary nature of Sirius......Page 66
3.4 The Dogon tribe and a modern Sirius mystery......Page 74
3.5 Conclusions......Page 82
4.1 The discovery of Sirius B: a tale of gravity......Page 84
4.2 A third body in the Sirius system?......Page 92
4.3 Modern searches for a third companion......Page 96
4.4 Conclusions......Page 101
5. Modern optical measurements......Page 102
5.1 Astrometry......Page 104
5.1.1 The Hipparcos Satellite......Page 106
5.2 Photometry......Page 109
5.3 Spectroscopy......Page 112
5.3.1 Rotation......Page 120
5.3.2 Magnetic field......Page 123
5.3.3 Gravitational Redshift and Spectra of Sirius B......Page 125
5.4 Conclusions......Page 130
6.1 Infrared......Page 131
6.2 UV and EUV measurements......Page 133
6.3 High energy observations......Page 137
6.4 Basic stellar parameters......Page 139
6.5 Conclusions......Page 141
7. The neighborhood of Sirius......Page 142
7.1 Interstellar matter......Page 143
7.2 Very small LISM structures in the Milky Way......Page 152
7.3 Stars in the neighborhood of Sirius......Page 156
7.4 Conclusions......Page 158
8.1 Upper main-sequence stars and Sirius A......Page 160
8.2 White dwarfs and Sirius B......Page 163
8.3 Conclusions......Page 174
9. The perspective of stellar evolution......Page 175
9.1 Evolution of a main-sequence A star: Sirius A......Page 177
9.2 Evolution of a white dwarf: Sirius B......Page 179
9.3 Binary star evolution: Sirius as population representative......Page 189
9.4 Conclusions......Page 193
10.1 Sirius analogs......Page 195
10.2 Sirius-basic data......Page 198
10.3.1 Specific models for Sirius......Page 200
10.3.2 Red color in antiquity......Page 206
10.4 Conclusions......Page 209
References......Page 213
H......Page 224
Z......Page 225

✦ Subjects

Физика;Астрономия и астрофизика;Наблюдательная астрономия;