The Luminous Sky Object Filmed Above the Island Krk is the Star Sirius

Unsplash/Muhammad Affan
Unsplash/Muhammad Affan

Original article (in Croatian) was published on 10/12/2024; Author: Ivica Kristović

The viral video that sparked claims the recorded luminous sky object was a UFO or Starlink satellite lacks context. According to experts, the object filmed is the star Sirius, the brightest star in our sky, which belongs to the constellation Canis Major.

On December 2nd, a Croatian user posted a video on their Facebook profile (archived here) showing a celestial object glowing in different colors.

“People, what is this?? This is not a joke… December 2, 2024, around 11 PM, above Krk…” the user wrote in the post along with the video.

The video, which the user claims was recorded on December 2nd at around 11 PM over the island of Krk, sparked huge interest on Facebook, gaining more than a million views, over 2500 comments, and 3.9 thousand reactions in just eight days.

Various theories about the identity of the object emerged in the comments: some suggested it was a flying saucer or an alien visit, while others speculated that it might be Starlink satellites belonging to Elon Musk, which had been photographed above Croatia in late November. Another group of commenters believed the object in the video was the star Sirius.

Višnjan Observatory: It’s the Star Sirius

To address the question raised in the post and to verify the claims in the comments, Faktograf sent the video to experts at the Višnjan Observatory, and they clearly stated that the object is the star Sirius.

“Sirius, the brightest star in our sky, belongs to the constellation Canis Major and is located ‘lower left of the well-known Orion’,” explained Gordana Ruso, program manager of the Popularization of Science Department at the Višnjan Astronomical Society and the Višnjan Science Education Center. She also explained why the star in the video changes colors based on statements from experts at the observatory.

“Stars are so far away that despite their actual size, they appear as dots in our sky. However, the Earth’s atmosphere is turbulent and filled with disturbances that cause different light wavelengths to refract. As a result, those dots twinkle, and especially bright stars, like Sirius, can appear to change color. This effect is even more pronounced for stars near the horizon because we are looking through a thicker layer of the atmosphere. Stars that are high in the sky twinkle less and, under stable atmospheric conditions, may even stop twinkling completely,” the response stated.

However, there are also objects in the sky that do not twinkle.

“On the other hand, bright objects in the sky that do not twinkle are actually planets, not stars. Although they appear as dots to our eyes, telescopes reveal a visible disk with details. Their size, proximity, and disk shape cause light to refract differently, which is why they do not twinkle like stars,” experts from the Višnjan Observatory added.

A Star Important to the Ancient Egyptian Calendar

In its entry about the star Sirius, the Croatian Encyclopedia states:

“Sirius (Latin < Greek Σɛίριος, literally: burning) (Alpha Canis Major, α Canis Majoris), the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major and the brightest star in the night sky, with an apparent magnitude of -1.47. One of the stars closest to Earth, it is 8.6 light-years away and receding at a radial velocity of -5.5 km/s. Its mass is about twice that of the Sun, its diameter 1.711 times greater, its brightness 25.4 times higher, and its surface temperature around 9940 K.”

“Sirius is a binary star. Its companion was the first white dwarf star to be discovered, predicted by Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel in 1844 due to the movement of the visible star, and photographed by Alvan Clark in 1862. Sirius B orbits Sirius A at a distance of 8.2 to 31.5 astronomical units, with an orbital period of about 50 years. Its mass is about 1.018 times that of the Sun, its diameter 0.0084, brightness 0.056, and surface temperature around 25,200 K. The star system is believed to be about 240 million years old,” the Croatian Encyclopedia adds, also mentioning the star’s significance in Ancient Egypt.

“The calendar in Ancient Egypt (around 2500 BC) was based on the rising of Sirius (Sopdet) just before the Sun, which occurred around the summer solstice and was a sign of the flooding of the Nile,” they note.

In conclusion, the post about the luminous sky object lacks context. According to experts from the Višnjan Observatory, the object filmed is the star Sirius, the brightest star in our sky, which belongs to the constellation Canis Major.

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