Follow That Star! Trivia Quiz

Answer: It was the brightest star in the sky.

Sirius is the brightest star in the sky; in fact, it is almost twice as bright as the next brightest star, Canopus. One of the reasons it seems to be so bright is because it is close to Earth. As it is gradually getting closer each year, it will also appear to be brighter during the next 60,000 years. Scientists estimate that it will be the Earth's brightest star for the next 210,000 years.

Another reason it is so bright is due to its luminosity, or intrinsic brightness.

Answer: Sopdet

Sopdet (Sothis in Greek) is also the name they used for the goddess that was the personification of the star. She was shown as a woman who had a five-pointed star on her head; during the Old Kingdom she was associated with soil fertility, and served as a guide to help dead pharaohs find their way to the stars in the afterlife.

She was married to Sah, who was associated with the constellation later called Orion; together they eventually were connected to Osiris and Isis.

Answer: True

The heliacal rising of Sirius for the ancient Egyptians happened before the summer solstice after the star had not been seen for about 70 days; it was during this time that they believed Isis and Osiris traveled through Duat, the underworld. Each day after the first heliacal rising, the star rises a bit earlier and stays visible a little longer before dawn. Believe it or not, the ancient Egyptians noticed that the heliacal rising of Sirius occurred every 365.25 days rather than 365. Eventually this discovery, of course, was used to adjust the Julian calendar.

They believed that Sirius was the doorway to the afterlife, and would not hold funerals to bury their dead during the time that the star could not be seen, as they believed the door to be closed.

It was with the appearance of the star that the ancient Egyptians set their calendar, making one that is incredibly similar to ours today. It featured 12 months, each with 30 days. At the end of the 360-day year, the remainder of the days - until the reappearance of the star - were festival days. That was how they accounted for the need for a leap year.

Some years there were more festival days than others.

Answer: The Nile would flood.

Being prepared for the annual flood was vitally important to the ancient Egyptians. The flood water deposited rich silt on the land to fertilize crops. In fact, the land was so rich after the flood that the ancients could plant and harvest three times before the next flood.

The other benefit was the extra water that was provided by the flood and it was very important for the farmers to have their basins dug and ready to accept the overflow. The basins were the main water source used in irrigation for the year round farming.

After the flood waters began to recede, the terrain was dotted with all sorts of lakes or ponds. Ancient Egyptians believed that Sirius actually caused the Nile to flood. And - by the way - sometimes they called Sirius the Nile Star!

Answer: Dogon

From Mali in West Africa, the Dogon appear to have studied Sirius before Western astronomers, worshiping it as early as 5,000 years ago. They were familiar with the star's orbital period, and also knew that it had a companion star. In fact, they believed there were three stars that rotated together, and that all matter was made by the motions of the stars' orbits.

It should be noted that some people theorize that the Dogon knowledge of Sirius, that should have required the use of a telescope, might have been the result of cultural diffusion in the late 1800s.

Answer: Red

Modern astronomers have tried to prove, without success, that in ancient times Sirius emitted a red color. There have been, however, many theories that are left wanting of a solid proof. If it was red, how did it change to the bluish-white color that is known today? The ancient Chinese wrote that the star was white, while Roman sources reveal that it was blue.

Modern scientists are still puzzled, but many have concluded that Ptolemy stated the star was red due to its association with heat, fire, and burning.

It is not red today - it is white or bluish-white - and stars do not change color that quickly.

Answer: True

Sirius A is considered to be a white main sequence star and Sirius B is a dim white dwarf. The distance between the two is from 8.2 to 31.5 astronomical units. They are closest to earth every 50.1 years. Sirius A is about twice the size of the sun and 25 times more luminous, while Sirius B, the nearest known white dwarf, is 10,000 times less luminous. It is believed that approximately 120 million years ago Sirius B, originally the largest of the two, became a white dwarf. Some scientists believe that it is feasible that there was a third star that was indeed red!

Answer: Dog Days

The Greeks, in fact, were the ones who gave Sirius its name, meaning "scorcher" or "glowing". They believed that when the star appeared in early summer that it would bring on such hot temperatures that plants and people would be scorched. Of course, this never happened, but they did coin the phrase "dog days" to describe the time that it became so hot that the heat could bring disease or cause people to suffer from fevers.

By the way, they believed that the heat from the star would also cause dogs to go crazy.

Answer: It is part of the constellation Canis Major.

The ancient Greek name Sirius is what eventually stuck; Sirius is the brightest star in the Canis Major constellation, which is translated from Latin as "the Greater Dog". Sirius was believed to be one of Orion's dogs. In fact, Homer called it Orion's Dog in the "Iliad".

It should be noted, however, that Sirius has many different names associated with it from other cultures. For example, in Sanskrit it is known as the "deer hunter", or Mrgavyadha, and in Chinese it is the star of the "celestial wolf", or Tiānláng. Some, like the ancient Greeks, associated it with a dog; the Inuit of Alaska called it "Moon Dog".

Answer: Navigation

The Maori called the star and the season it brought Takurua, and its appearance marked the beginning of winter in the Pacific world. Talented navigators, the Pacific cultures learned several navigational tricks over time, such as observing the migrations of birds, and watching the clouds and weather, but they also used stars to mark latitude and serve as compasses to help them find their destinations.