Chandra Release - September 26, 2000

Visual Description: Sirius A and B

The X-ray image shows the double star system Sirius A & B. At the center of the image, there are two white circular sources and speckled extending lines which loosely resembles a spider's web.  One of the white sources is large and bright, and the second is smaller, and offset at about 1 o’clock, almost touching the first source. The colors in the image are predominantly shades of magenta, white and black. The positioning of the two white features is symmetrical, with the white spots at the center and the spoke-like pattern evenly spaced around it.   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.