Sirius
E190097
A-type main-sequence star
astronomical object
binary star system
main-sequence star
star
star system
stellar system
white dwarf
Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky, a nearby binary star system in the constellation Canis Major that has featured prominently in astronomy, mythology, and literature.
All labels observed (5)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Sirius canonical | 13 |
| Sirius A | 3 |
| Alpha Canis Majoris | 1 |
| Sirius (star) | 1 |
| Sirius B | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1684314 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Sirius Context triple: [Micromégas, setting, Sirius]
-
A.
Rigel
Rigel is a luminous blue supergiant star and one of the brightest stars in the night sky, prominently marking the foot of the constellation Orion.
-
B.
Aldebaran
Aldebaran is a bright orange giant star in the constellation Taurus, known as one of the most prominent stars in the night sky.
-
C.
Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse is a massive red supergiant star in the constellation Orion, notable for its brightness and status as a likely future supernova.
-
D.
Canopus
Canopus was an ancient Egyptian coastal city near modern-day Alexandria, known as a major religious center and sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Isis.
-
E.
Beta Crucis
Beta Crucis, also known as Mimosa, is a bright blue giant star in the Southern Cross constellation and one of the most prominent navigational stars in the southern sky.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Sirius Target entity description: Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky, a nearby binary star system in the constellation Canis Major that has featured prominently in astronomy, mythology, and literature.
-
A.
Rigel
Rigel is a luminous blue supergiant star and one of the brightest stars in the night sky, prominently marking the foot of the constellation Orion.
-
B.
Aldebaran
Aldebaran is a bright orange giant star in the constellation Taurus, known as one of the most prominent stars in the night sky.
-
C.
Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse is a massive red supergiant star in the constellation Orion, notable for its brightness and status as a likely future supernova.
-
D.
Canopus
Canopus was an ancient Egyptian coastal city near modern-day Alexandria, known as a major religious center and sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Isis.
-
E.
Beta Crucis
Beta Crucis, also known as Mimosa, is a bright blue giant star in the Southern Cross constellation and one of the most prominent navigational stars in the southern sky.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (62)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
A-type main-sequence star
ⓘ
astronomical object ⓘ binary star system ⓘ main-sequence star ⓘ star ⓘ star ⓘ star system ⓘ stellar system ⓘ white dwarf ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
Alpha Canis Majoris
ⓘ
Canicula ⓘ Dog Star ⓘ Sothis ⓘ |
| apparentMagnitude | −1.46 ⓘ |
| belongsTo | Milky Way ⓘ |
| culturalSignificance |
important in Greek mythology
ⓘ
important in Polynesian navigation ⓘ important in Roman mythology ⓘ important in ancient Egyptian astronomy ⓘ |
| declination_J2000 | −16° 42′ 58″ ⓘ |
| distanceFromEarth_ly | about 8.6 ⓘ |
| distanceFromEarth_pc | about 2.64 ⓘ |
| effectiveTemperature_K |
about 25200
ⓘ
about 9940 ⓘ |
| featuredIn |
astronomy literature
ⓘ
fiction and popular culture ⓘ mythology ⓘ |
| hasBayerDesignation |
Alpha Canis Majoris
ⓘ
surface form:
α Canis Majoris
|
| hasCompanionType | degenerate star ⓘ |
| hasComponent |
Sirius
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Sirius A
Sirius self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
Sirius B
|
| hasFlamsteedDesignation |
Alpha Canis Majoris
ⓘ
surface form:
9 Canis Majoris
|
| hasGlieseDesignation | Gliese 244 ⓘ |
| hasHDDesignation | HD 48915 ⓘ |
| hasHIPDesignation | HIP 32349 ⓘ |
| hasHRDesignation | HR 2491 ⓘ |
| hasProperMotion | yes ⓘ |
| heliacalRisingAssociatedWith | Nile flooding in ancient Egypt ⓘ |
| isBrightestStarIn | night sky ⓘ |
| isNearestATypeStarToSun | true ⓘ |
| isStandardStarFor | photometric calibration ⓘ |
| locatedInConstellation | Canis Major ⓘ |
| luminosity_solarLuminosity | about 25 ⓘ |
| mass_solarMass |
about 1.0
ⓘ
about 2.0 ⓘ |
| memberOf | Local Bubble ⓘ |
| nameOrigin | Greek word "Seirios" meaning "glowing" or "scorching" ⓘ |
| observedBy |
Hipparcos satellite
ⓘ
Hubble Space Telescope ⓘ |
| orbitalEccentricity | about 0.59 ⓘ |
| orbitalPeriod_years | about 50.1 ⓘ |
| parallax_mas | about 379.21 ⓘ |
| properMotion_Dec_masPerYear | about −1223.1 ⓘ |
| properMotion_RA_masPerYear | about −546.0 ⓘ |
| radialVelocity_kmPerSec | about −5.5 ⓘ |
| radius_earthRadius | about 0.0084 ⓘ |
| radius_solarRadius | about 1.7 ⓘ |
| rightAscension_J2000 | 06h 45m 08.9s ⓘ |
| spectralType |
A1V
ⓘ
A1V ⓘ DA2 ⓘ |
| visibleFrom | both hemispheres ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Sirius Description of subject: Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky, a nearby binary star system in the constellation Canis Major that has featured prominently in astronomy, mythology, and literature.
Referenced by (19)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Sirius A
this entity surface form:
Alpha Canis Majoris
this entity surface form:
Sirius A
this entity surface form:
Sirius B
this entity surface form:
Sirius A
this entity surface form:
Sirius (star)