Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Hubble finds Mass of White Dwarf

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the gully-dwarf-mass-still-unknown dept.

Chris Bradshaw writes "The mass of the nearest white dwarf star to Earth has been measured accurately for the first time. from the article: 'Sirius B is just 12,000 km (7,500 miles) in diameter, similar to Earth, but its mass is 98% that of the Sun. Studying Sirius B has been difficult because of the bright light coming from its neighbour Sirius A, the "Dog Star." The results, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, come from astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope.'"

3 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. It's a shame... by chrstphrb · · Score: 5, Interesting
    It is a shame that Hubble is on borrowed time...

    http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050420-1 25927-9641r.htm

  2. An operation of public communication by 4D6963 · · Score: 1, Interesting
    It sounds like they mention alot that it was done using Hubble to make people hear that the HST is still usefull and can be used to find real results, as more and more people think the HST is only good at making nice looking color images but not getting any important scientifical discovery.

    I still keep thinking the HST isn't really needed anymore

    --
    You just got troll'd!
  3. The Dogon Mystery by writerjosh · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The Dogon, a tribe in West Africa, are believed to be of Egyptian descent. After living in Libya for a time, they settled in Mali, West Africa, bringing with them astronomy legends dating from before 3200 BCE. In the late 1940s, four of their priests told two French anthropologists of a secret Dogon myths about the star Sirius (8.6 light years from the earth). The priests said that Sirius had a companion star that was invisible to the human eye. They also stated that the star moved in a 50-year elliptical orbit around Sirius, that it was small and incredibly heavy, and that it rotated on its axis.

    All these things happen to be true. But what makes this so remarkable is that the companion star of Sirius, called Sirius B, was first photographed in 1970. While people began to suspect its existence around 1844, it was not seen through a telescope until 1862 -- and even then its great density was not known or understood until the early decades of the twentieth century. The Dogon beliefs, on the other hand, were supposedly thousands of years old.

    http://www.dreamscape.com/morgana/thalass2.htm

    --
    Health Insurance Quotes