At 8.6 light-years away, Sirius B is the nearest known white dwarf star ... Those in a binary star system may have a strong enough gravitational pull to gather in material from a neighboring ...

This week’s first small-telescope target is Sirius B, the companion to the night sky’s brightest star, Alpha (α) Canis Majoris. American telescope-maker Alvin Graham Clark discovered that ...

Astronomers measure a star’s brightness using the apparent magnitude system, where lower values indicate brighter stars.