Sirius is the brightest star in the sky and visible from most of the planet. We've been staring at it for 1000s of years, but the more we learn about it, the weirder it gets.
Watch this video ad-free on Nebula:
https://nebula.tv/videos/scienceasylum-the-star-that-keeps-getting-weirder
Nick Lucid - Host, Writer, Editor, Animator
Em Lucid - Producer
Huge thanks to 12Tone and Simon Clark for lending their voices:
https://www.youtube.com/@12tone
https://www.youtube.com/@SimonClark
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VIDEO ANNOTATIONS/CARDS
Friedmann Equations:
https://youtu.be/DAVsNkozQa8
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HUGE THANK YOU TO THESE SUPPORTERS
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SOURCES
Generic History:
https://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/curriculum-collections/cosmic-horizons-book/friedrich-bessel-sirius-b
http://vega.lpl.arizona.edu/sirius/A5.html
https://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2007JHA....38..161H
Bessel's Original Publication:
https://adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1844MNRAS...6R.136B
Lewis Boss Data:
https://lccn.loc.gov/10009645
Walter Adams Publications:
https://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1911ApJ....33...64A
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/122337/pdf
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/122359/pdf
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/122440/pdf
Eddington Quote:
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.173636/page/n53/
Naming Conventions:
https://www.iau.org/public/themes/naming_stars/
Planetary Nebula Info:
https://www.astronomy.com/science/sirius-our-brightest-star-is-orbited-by-a-white-dwarf-a-dead-stars-core-where-is-the-planetary-nebula-that-would-have-formed-when-it-shed-its-skin/
Modern Sirius Specs:
https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.10625
Current Mystery:
https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/why-so-sirius
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LINKS TO COMMENTS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAVsNkozQa8&lc=UgzmFm1xhHZCaXktZz94AaABAg
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IMAGE/VIDEO CREDITS
Hubble Image of Sirius:
https://esahubble.org/images/heic0516a/
Sirius Dog Art:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sidney_Hall_-_Urania%27s_Mirror_-_Canis_Major,_Lepus,_Columba_Noachi_%26_Cela_Sculptoris.jpg
Contact Binary:
https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1540a/
Ring Nebula:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/messier-57-the-ring-nebula
Koenigsberg Observatory:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Koenigsberg_observatory.jpg
Portraits:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Friedrich_Wilhelm_Bessel_-_EESachse.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Friedrich_Wilhelm_Bessel_1846_von_Christian_Albrecht_Jensen.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alvan_Clark_an_his_sons.jpg
https://repository.aip.org/islandora/object/nbla%3A292853
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TIME CODES
00:00 Intro
00:41 Friedrich Bessel postulates Sirius B
02:41 Declination and Right Ascension
03:11 Alvan Clark discovers Sirius B
04:15 The Hunt for More Data
04:57 HR Diagrams
07:07 Stefan-Boltzmann Law
07:33 Insane Density of White Dwarfs
08:37 White Dwarfs and Planetary Nebulas
10:08 Sirius in the Distant Past
10:49 Closing Thoughts
11:11 Featured Comment
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Corrections:
07:14 While what I'm saying here is correct, the equation isn't using traditional symbols. It would have been better to have written the equation as L ∝ A T⁴, but oh well.