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File:Sirius A & B X-ray.jpg

Sirius_A_&_B_X-ray.jpg ‎(420 × 331 pixels, file size: 248 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Summary

Description
English: An X-ray image of the Sirius star system located 8.6 light years from Earth. This image shows two sources and a spike-like pattern due to the support structure for the transmission grating. The bright source is Sirius B, a white dwarf star that has a surface temperature of about 25,000 degrees Celsius which produces very low energy X-rays. The dim source at the position of Sirius A – a normal star more than twice as massive as the Sun – may be due to ultraviolet radiation from Sirius A leaking through the filter on the detector. In contrast, Sirius A is the brightest star in the northern sky when viewed with an optical telescope, while Sirius B is 10,000 times dimmer. Because the two stars are so close together Sirius B escaped detection until 1862 when Alvan Clark discovered it while testing one of the best optical telescopes in the world at that time.
Date 26 September 2000
Source CHANDRA X-ray Observatory CXC Operated for NASA by SAO, url= http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2000/0065/index.html
Author NASA/SAO/CXC
Permission
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Image is 77 x 62 arcsec across. RA 06h 45m 11s Dec -16° 42' 05.00" in Canis Major. Observation date: October 28, 1999. Instrument:ACIS.

Licensing

Public domain This file is in the public domain because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.)
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Metadata

This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details may not fully reflect the modified file.
Image title 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!
Author Chandra X-ray Observatory Centre
Copyright holder http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html
Width 1,936 px
Height 1,531 px
Compression scheme LZW
Pixel composition RGB
Orientation Normal
Number of components 3
Horizontal resolution 72 dpi
Vertical resolution 72 dpi
Data arrangement chunky format
Software used Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh
File change date and time 10:12, 8 September 2008
Colour space sRGB

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