Word: sirius
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...period somewhere between uncertainty and crisis. Contained in Le Monde's 16 somber pages were reports on worldly woes, from the U.N.-to the Congo. But it was an article near the bottom of Page One that commanded the French citizen's closest attention. Signed by "Sirius," the piece predicted that unless Charles de Gaulle soon ends the Algerian war, France will plunge back into chaos worse than that from which he rescued...
...Companion. The first white dwarf was found when mid-19th century astronomers noticed that Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, wobbles slightly, and theorized that it revolves around another star too close and dim to be seen separately. Later astronomers, using more sophisticated telescopes to eliminate the glare, finally picked out the other star nestling close to Sirius, and gradually accumulated some surprising information about...
Studying the Companion's orbit around Sirius, they proved that its mass is 96% of the sun's, yet it gives 400 times less light. At first they thought that it was an average, sun-sized star that gives less light because of low temperature. But by 1915 astronomers were able to prove that its surface is really hotter than the sun's and gives three times as much light per square inch. If a star's surface is bright but the star as a whole gives off little light, then the only possible conclusion...