What is "sirius"

Sirius \Sir"i*us\, n. [L., fr. Gr. ???, properly, scorching.] (Astron.) The Dog Star. See Dog Star.

brightest star by magnitude, late 14c., from Latin Sirius "the Dog Star," from Greek Seirios, said to mean literally "scorching" or "the scorcher." But other related Greek words seem to derive from this use, and the name might be a folk-etymologized borrowing from some other language. An Egyptian name for it was Sothis. The connection of the star with scorching heat is from its ancient heliacal rising at the summer solstice (see dog days). Also see dog star. Related: Sirian. The constellation Canis Major seems to have grown from the star, not the other way.\n\nHomer made much of it as [Kyon], but his Dog doubtless was limited to the star Sirius, as among the ancients generally till, at some unknown date, the constellation was formed as we have it, -- indeed till long afterwards, for we find many allusions to the Dog in which we are uncertain whether the constellation or its lucida is referred to.

[Richard Hinckley Allen, Canis Major in "Star Names and Their Meanings," London: 1899]

Sirius is a star system and the brightest star in the Earth's night sky. With a visual apparent magnitude of −1.46, it is almost twice as bright as Canopus, the next brightest star. The name "Sirius" is derived from the Ancient Greek Σείριος (Seirios), meaning "glowing" or "scorcher". The system has the Bayer designation Alpha Canis Majoris (α CMa). What the naked eye perceives as a single star is actually a binary star system, consisting of a white main-sequence star of spectral type A1V, termed Sirius A, and a faint white dwarf companion of spectral type DA2, called Sirius B. The distance separating Sirius A from its companion varies between 8.2 and 31.5 AU.

Sirius appears bright because of both its intrinsic luminosity and its proximity to Earth. At a distance of 2.6 parsecs (8.6 ly), as determined by the Hipparcos astrometry satellite, the Sirius system is one of Earth's near neighbors. Sirius is gradually moving closer to the Solar System, so it will slightly increase in brightness over the next 60,000 years. After that time its distance will begin to increase and it will become fainter, but it will continue to be the brightest star in the Earth's sky for the next 210,000 years.

Sirius A is about twice as massive as the Sun and has an absolute visual magnitude of 1.42. It is 25 times more luminous than the Sun but has a significantly lower luminosity than other bright stars such as Canopus or Rigel. The system is between 200 and years old. It was originally composed of two bright bluish stars. The more massive of these, Sirius B, consumed its resources and became a red giant before shedding its outer layers and collapsing into its current state as a white dwarf around years ago.

Sirius is also known colloquially as the "Dog Star", reflecting its prominence in its constellation, Canis Major (Greater Dog). The heliacal rising of Sirius marked the flooding of the Nile in Ancient Egypt and the " dog days" of summer for the ancient Greeks, while to the Polynesians in the Southern Hemisphere the star marked winter and was an important reference for their navigation around the Pacific Ocean.

Sirius is a binary star system in the constellation Canis Major, appearing as the brightest star in the night sky.

Sirius may also refer to:

Sirius is a 1944 science fiction novel by the British philosopher and author Olaf Stapledon, whose title character is a dog named Sirius with humanlike intelligence. A sense of existential questioning suffuses the book, as the author delves into aspects of Sirius's psyche. The novel deals with many human issues through Sirius and his experiences, his unusual nature, his ideas and his relationships with humans. The characters go to great lengths to prevent Sirius from becoming a circus-type wonderdog, and instead, they seek to develop Sirius's character much like a family would create and foster that of a human child.

Sirius is the tenth album by Irish folk group Clannad, released in 1987. It features several guest artists such as Bruce Hornsby, Steve Perry and J.D. Souther.

1. redirect Sirius (instrumental)

Category:1982 songs

Sirius: eight-channel electronic music and trumpet, soprano, bass clarinet, and bass is a music-theatre composition by Karlheinz Stockhausen, composed between 1975 and 1977. It is Nr. 43 in the composer's catalogue of works, and lasts 96 minutes in performance.

"Sirius" is a 1982 song by the British rock band The Alan Parsons Project from the album Eye in the Sky. It is a 1:54 minute instrumental piece that segues into " Eye in the Sky"' on the original recording. From the 1990s onward, "Sirius" has become a staple of many big-time college and professional sporting arenas throughout North America.

Sirius was a constellation of communications satellites operated at 5°E in geostationary orbit (GEO) by NSAB (later SES Sirius, and now a non-autonomous part of SES, owner and operator of the Astra satellites). They carried digital satellite television to the countries of Scandinavia, Baltic states, eastern Europe and Africa, including the Viasat pay TV system, along with several pay TV packages for eastern Europe, the TopTV package for Africa, a number of Ukrainian channels and the national Latvian and Lithuanian channel service free-to-air.

Sirius is a 2013 documentary directed by Amardeep Kaleka, based upon ufologist Steven M. Greer's book Hidden Truth, Forbidden Knowledge. Partially funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign, the movie is narrated by Thomas Jane and follows Greer's efforts to reveal what he claims is information about top secret energy projects and propulsion techniques.

Sirius features interviews from former officials from the government and military as well as images and a DNA analysis of the six-inch human skeleton known as Ata that was found in the Atacama desert in northern Chile in 2003. The film premiered on April 22, 2013 in Los Angeles, California as well as online.