Word: dwarfed
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...that Sirius is part of a binary, or two-star, system. It has a small companion star far too dim to be seen by the naked eye. Sirius B, as the diminutive star was named (the familiar Sirius was renamed Sirius A), is now known to be a white dwarf, the dying ember of a star...
Prior to entering the white-dwarf stage, however, an aging star cools and balloons into a red giant. And that, the Ruhr researchers speculate, is probably what Sirius B was when the Babylonians--and then the Greeks, Romans and Franks--gazed skyward. To the unaided eyes of the ancients, the two closely spaced stars looked like a single pinpoint, with a decided reddish tint imparted by the dominating giant. The combined light of the binary pair would certainly have been brighter than it is today, and indeed Babylonian cuneiforms tell of Sirius' being visible in the daytime...
...German researchers have no idea exactly when Sirius B collapsed into the white-dwarf stage and no longer obscured Sirius A's white light. Depending on the original mass of Sirius B, the star's transformation could have ranged from a gradual shrinkage to a sudden collapse that resulted in a gigantic explosion that blew much of its stellar matter into space...
...change was gradual, the researchers admit, it took a remarkably short time for Sirius B to become a white dwarf. In fact, most astronomers think a red giant takes at least 100,000 years to reach that stage. If the change was violent and abrupt, they say, "no traces of catastrophic effects connected with such an event have been found." Those traces, according to widely accepted astrophysical theory, would include an expanding cloud of glowing gas still visible from the earth. Finally, the brilliance of Sirius B's explosion would certainly have lasted for weeks or months and provided...
...meeting, residents asked Kingston why illegal immigrants get Social Security benefits (they don't), if members of Congress pay into Social Security (they do) and why the U.S. didn't employ the money it uses for foreign aid to pay for Social Security (the costs of Social Security completely dwarf the U.S. foreign aid budget). When he explained government would only put the money of workers into safe funds, a group of women immediately shouted "what's safe?" They don?t trust us," Kingston admitted...