Draft:Sirius B
Sirius B is a white dwarf, a remnant of an intermediate-mass star that have end its life, being the closest example to Earth. It is the secondary object of the Sirius binary system, of which the 'A' component is the brightest star in the night sky. Sirius B, on the other hand, can't be seen to the naked eye, as its luminosity is only 2% that of the Sun. Sirius is the fifth-nearest star system to the Sun, 8.6 light-years distant.
Like all white dwarfs, Sirius B is massive and dense: While its size is comparable to that of Earth, its mass is equivalent to that of the Sun. It is the progenitor of a 5 M☉ star that existed around 100 million years ago. Sirius B's current temperature is of 25000 K (25000 C, 44,500ºF), 2.5 times hotter than Sirius A and over four times hotter than the Sun. It no longer produce energy via nuclear fusion, and its remaining heat will escape to space over time.
Due to its proximity, Sirius B has been the target of many studies in the last decades in attempt to discover extrasolar planets. None of them even detected a planet around Sirius B, though some planetary architethures still can't be ruled out by current observations.
Introduction
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White dwarfs are remnants of intermediate-mass stars (such as the Sun) which have end their lifes.[1] Stars produce energy by the nuclear fusion of four hydrogen atoms in one helium atom. The energy released make the star in hydrostatic equilibrium. Eventually, in intermediate-mass stars, the core runs out of hydrogen, the outer layers start to expand and the star becomes a red giant, with dozens to hundreds of times its original size. The core shrinks in size under the star's weight, since it has less atoms. Then, pressure is enough to start nuclear fusion of hydrogen in a shell surrounding the core and, when there is sufficient pressure, helium fusion into carbon is achieved. In its last evolutionary stages, the star ejects its outer layers, and only a degenerate core is left.[2]
These astronomical objects do not produce energy via nuclear fusion and radiate their residual heat, cooling over time.[2] When virtually all heat has escaped, they become black dwarfs, which is expected to take over 10 trillion years, much more than the current age of the universe of 14 billion years. White dwarfs have enormous density, from 100,000 to 100,000,000 grams per cubic centimeter,[3] so that a teaspoon of white dwarf matter would weigh 5.5 tonnes.[2] They can contain mass comparable to that of the Sun with sizes comparable to Earth.[3] (For reference, Earth is 332,900 times less massive than the Sun.[4]) One of the smallest and most massive white dwarfs is in the HD 49798 system, which is 1.22 times more massive than the Sun,[5] yet has a radius of a mere 1,600 km, smaller than the Moon.[6] Other typical white dwarfs like Procyon B or van Maanen 2 have masses of 0.6 and 0.7 solar masses (M☉) and radii of about 0.011 and 0.012 solar radii (R☉), respectively.
Characteristics
[edit]Sirius B has a radius measured at 0.008098±1.6% times the Sun's radius,[7] equivalent to 5,635 km (3,501 mi) or 0.88 times Earth's radius of 6,378 km. Its mass has been estimated multiple times. The first estimate, back in 1910, resulted in an value of 0.94 M☉ and was done by observations of Sirius B's orbit around Sirius A.[8] This is not so far from modern measurements, one from 2017 which combine multiple observations yield a value of 1.018±0.011 M☉.[7] Such mass make it one of the most massive white dwarfs known, almost doubling the average of 0.6 M☉.[9] White dwarfs, due to their structure, have the unusual property that how more massive it is, smaller it is, so a smaller white dwarf have more mass than a larger one.[10]
Its age can be estimated by the cooling age method, that is, calculating how long it took to cool to its current temperature. This method is based on the surface effective temperature and mass of the white dwarf, and does not take in account the progenitor's lifetime. Sirius B has a temperature of 25,000 K/ºC,[11] compared to the 5,772 K (5,499 °C) of the Sun[4] or 9,845±64 K of Sirius A.[12] From this method, an age of 126 million years is obtained. This is about half of the total age of the system of 230 million years.[7]
From theorethical calculations, the mass of the main sequence progenitor is calculated
Discovery
[edit]Search for planets
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ information@eso.org. "White Dwarf". esahubble.org. Retrieved 2025-02-28.
- ^ a b c "Stellar Evolution : The Life and Death of Our Luminous Neighbors". websites.umich.edu. Retrieved 2025-02-28.
- ^ a b Fontaine, G.; Brassard, P.; Bergeron, P. (2001). "The potential of white dwarf cosmochronology". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 113 (782): 409–435. Bibcode:2001PASP..113..409F. doi:10.1086/319535.
- ^ a b "Sun Fact Sheet". nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2025-02-28.
- ^ Rigoselli, Michela; De Grandis, Davide; Mereghetti, Sandro; Malacaria, Christian (30 May 2023). "Timing the X-ray pulsating companion of the hot subdwarf HD 49798 with NICER". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 523 (2): 3043–3048. arXiv:2305.15845. doi:10.1093/mnras/stad1611.
- ^ Mereghetti, S.; Pintore, F.; Rauch, T.; La Palombara, N.; Esposito, P.; Geier, S.; Pelisoli, I.; Rigoselli, M.; Schaffenroth, V.; Tiengo, A. (2021). "New X-ray observations of the hot subdwarf binary HD 49798/RX J0648.0–4418". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 504: 920–925. arXiv:2104.03867. doi:10.1093/mnras/stab1004.
- ^ a b c Bond, Howard E.; Schaefer, Gail H.; Gilliland, Ronald L.; Holberg, Jay B.; Mason, Brian D.; Lindenblad, Irving W.; et al. (2017). "The Sirius system and its astrophysical puzzles: Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based astrometry". The Astrophysical Journal. 840 (2): 70. arXiv:1703.10625. Bibcode:2017ApJ...840...70B. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aa6af8. S2CID 51839102.
- ^ Boss, L. (1910). Preliminary General Catalogue of 6188 stars for the epoch 1900. Carnegie Institution of Washington. Bibcode:1910pgcs.book.....B. LCCN 10009645 – via Archive.org.
- ^ Kepler, S.O.; Kleinman, S.J.; Nitta, A.; Koester, D.; Castanheira, B.G.; Giovannini, O.; Costa, A.F.M.; Althaus, L. (2007). "White dwarf mass distribution in the SDSS". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 375 (4): 1315–1324. arXiv:astro-ph/0612277. Bibcode:2007MNRAS.375.1315K. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.11388.x. S2CID 10892288.
- ^ "Imagine the Universe!". imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2025-02-28.
- ^ Liebert, James; Young, P. A.; Arnett, D.; Holberg, J. B.; Williams, K. A. (2005). "The age and progenitor mass of Sirius B". The Astrophysical Journal. 630 (1): L69. arXiv:astro-ph/0507523. Bibcode:2005ApJ...630L..69L. doi:10.1086/462419. S2CID 8792889.
- ^ Davis, J.; et al. (October 2010). "The Angular Diameter and Fundamental Parameters of Sirius A". Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia. 28: 58–65. arXiv:1010.3790. doi:10.1071/AS10010.