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could the stars of the sirius system go supernovae?

6 Answers

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  • 2 years ago

    No; neither have the mass to go supernova. Even if Sirius B were to siphon off much of it's larger partner's mass, there still wouldn't be enough to create supernova...

  • 2 years ago

    I believe their mass is just too low to go supernovae. A mergence of the two,,possible.

  • 2 years ago

    Yes, because they are massive enough.

  • Sharon
    Lv 6
    2 years ago

    The mass of Sirius B is well below the Chandrasekhar Limit, the minimum mass for supernovas, and Sirius A is barely at the minimum, so very unlikely

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  • Anonymous
    2 years ago

    It's hard to say. Sirius B is a white dwarf of about 0.9 solar masses, which makes it one of the largest white dwarfs known. Once its companion Sirius A, expands into a red giant, some of its atmosphere may start falling onto Sirius B, increasing its mass towards the magical 1.4 solar mass Chandrasekhar limit, at which point the white dwarf may turn into a Type Ia supernova. It depends on how big Sirius A gets, and how quickly matter falls onto Sirius B.

  • ?
    Lv 7
    2 years ago

    No. Neither star has enough to go supernova. Sirius a is about 2 solar masses and Sirius b is the mass of the Sun.

    https://earthsky.org/space/how-astronomers-learn-t...

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