Artist's impression of the sizes of Sirius B and the Earth
Based on the Hubble measurements made with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, an international team found that Sirius B has a mass that is 98 percent that of our own Sun. Despite this large mass Sirius B is only 12,000 kilometers in diameter, making it smaller than even the Earth and much denser. Sirius B's powerful gravitational field is 350,000 times greater than Earth's, meaning that a 68 kilogram person would weigh 25 million kilograms standing on its surface.
Credit:About the Image
Id: | heic0516c |
Type: | Artwork |
Release date: | 13 December 2005, 15:00 |
Related releases: | heic0516 |
Size: | 2086 x 1568 px |
About the Object
Name: | Earth, Sirius B |
Type: | Solar System : Planet Milky Way : Star : Evolutionary Stage : White Dwarf |
Category: | Solar System |