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:

ESA and NASA

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

Image Formats

r.titleLarge JPEG
532.9 KB
r.titleScreensize JPEG
122.8 KB

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