The brightest star in the night sky is Sirius in theconstellation Canis Major. It is also a binary system. Sirius A,the brighter of the two stars, is an A1 type. Sirius B, the dimmercompanion star, is a white dwarf. White dwarf stars have a limit tohow massive they can be (known as the Chandrasekhar limit). Themost mass a white dwarf can have is 1.44 solar masses.

The Sirius system has a period P=50.1 years and a semi-major axisa=19.8 AU.

Question1

If Sirius B is as massive as a white dwarf can be,what is the mass of Sirius A?

Question2

Themass of Sirius B has been measured by other means (using Hubbleimages and Einstein's theory of General Relativity) to be 0.98solar masses. What is the mass of SiriusA?