Kolob & God’s Throne as Sirius A & B

While I still hold to the idea that Kolob is a Population III star that has already met its demise (see Kolob Might Be Dead), today I want to put an extra feather in the cap of the Kolob-is-Sirius camp. Something has recently come to my attention that makes the Sirius idea a lot more interesting in my opinion, and it deserves a blog post. Now, I have scoured the internet and haven’t found anyone else mentioning this cool connection between the famous scriptural star and the bright physical one, so if somebody already has, I apologize in advance. 

The Sirius theory’s main support (in my eyes) is that the name Kolob could derive from the Hebrew word KLB, which means “dog.” Sirius is today known as the Dog Star, as it was in ancient times. Also, from our vantage point on Earth, Sirius is the brightest star in the sky. If you remember, the Lord tells Abraham that Kolob “is the greatest of all” the stars that Abraham had seen, so that all works out pretty nicely!

Feel free to check out what others have written on the Sirius theory, because I’m sure there is a lot more to it. What I’m adding to it today (and again—I’m not sure if anyone else has already pointed this out) has to do with Sirius and its special binary-star companion that nobody knew about until 1844 at the earliest. Let’s start with some scripture references.

The Book of Abraham says that Kolob is “nigh unto the throne of God,” and the “nearest” star to Him (Abr. 3:9, 16). From this we know that Kolob is close to the throne of God. But where is the throne of God? D&C 130 may have the answer.

Well, D&C 130 doesn’t say anything about the throne specifically, but it does say that God “reside[s] … on a globe like a sea of glass and fire, … a great Urim and Thummim.” He lives on a hot sphere made of what resembles glass, and I would assume that His throne is there too. It’s an assumption, but it makes sense.

Let’s put all that together: God’s throne is on a giant, fiery, glass-like ball, and it’s close to Kolob—in fact, it’s closer to Kolob than to any other star. Got it? Good.

Now, what’s so special about Sirius other than its etymology and brightness? Well, it turns out that Sirius is not just one star, but two. Yes, Sirius—which is really called Sirius A— has a companion star that it orbits—which is named Sirius B. And this smaller companion star is a white dwarf… or in other words, a giant, fiery, glass-like ball. (See Crystal, Glass, and Diamond Worlds of Fire)

Sirius A is orbited by (a.k.a. really close to) a blazing, crystallized—and most interestingly—earth-sized globe. Now, what does that sound like??

It sounds like Kolob (possibly Sirius A) and the throne of God (possibly Sirius B). 

This, I think, strengthens the assertion that Kolob is Sirius. It’s the Dog Star, it’s the brightest star we can see with the naked eye, and it’s orbited by a hot, glass-like sphere that sounds suspiciously like the “planet” where God resides.

Now, Joseph Smith publicly debuted the star Kolob and its name in 1842, but even if he intended it to have connections with the star Sirius, he couldn’t/shouldn’t have known that Sirius had a companion star—much less a crystallized globe for a companion star. Nobody suspected that Sirius had an orbital stellar friend until Friedrich Bessel (the same guy who was first to measure distances to stars in 1838) suggested it in 1844. And Sirius’ close sidekick wouldn’t be actually confirmed until 1862. It took almost a solid 20 years after the publication of the Book of Abraham for it to be known as fact that Sirius was orbited by another star, Sirius B. And it would be over a century after its discovery that we would realize that Sirius B was crystallized (or at least would some day crystallize, as all white dwarfs are said to do). Here’s a rough timeline of pertinent events below:

• 1835: Kolob is mentioned in the GAEL
• 1836: Joseph Smith begins his Hebrew studies under Joshua Seixas
• 1842: Joseph Smith says Kolob is close to God’s throne
• 1843: Joseph Smith says God lives on a burning, glass-like globe
• 1844: Sirius hypothesized by Bessel to have a companion
• 1862: Sirius B discovered
• 1970: First photo of Sirius B taken
• 2019: confirmed that all white dwarfs will at some point in their evolution crystallize 

I’m reminded of the following gem from Joseph Smith. It doesn’t confirm that God lives on a white dwarf, but it’s interesting while considering D&C 130 and the stellar, hot, crystallized worlds that white dwarfs are:

“God Almighty himself dwells in Eternal fire, flesh and blood cannot go there for all corruption is devoured by the fire—our God is a consuming fire—when our flesh is quickened by the Spirit, there will be no blood in the tabernacles,—some dwell in higher glory than others… Immortality dwells in everlasting burnings… all men who are immortal, dwell in everlasting burnings;”

Joseph Smith, 12 May 1844

Is Kolob really Sirius A? Does God “reside” on a white dwarf, Sirius B (see D&C 130:6-8)? I don’t know. Like I said at the beginning of this post, I still believe that Kolob is a dead Population III star (something which Sirius definitely is not). However, I am open to the idea that Kolob can have multiple fulfillments if you will; and if the evidence begins to increasingly support the Sirius theory, I’m open to switching camps. For what it’s worth, I think the idea of God and angels living on a white dwarf fits pretty well.

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I’ll end this post with some unsolicited facts about Sirius A and B. You’re welcome.

• Diameter of Sirius B: 7,450 mi (diameter of Earth is 7,918 mi–they are pretty much the same size) 
• Mass of Sirius B: 1.02 solar masses
• My weight on Sirius B: roughly 67 million pounds (depending on the day)
• Surface temperature on Sirius B: 25,200 K (44,900 F–Sounds like “everlasting burnings” to me)
• Age of Sirius A and B system: 225-250 million years (meaning they started their tango around the same time the earliest dinosaurs evolved on Earth)
• Estimated lifespan of white dwarfs: 10 billion to 1 quadrillion (10^15) years (sounds like “everlasting” and “eternal” compared to my human lifespan)

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Sources and Notes

• Photo of Sirius A & B: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius#/media/File:Sirius_A_and_B_Hubble_photo.jpg
• Cool pic of Earth vs Sirius B: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0516c/ 
• Joseph Smith studying Hebrew: http://jur.byu.edu/?p=15384#:~:text=That%20next%20January%20Joseph%20and,was%20briefly%20exposed%20to%20Greek.
• Discovery of Sirius B: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius#Discovery_of_Sirius_B; Sirius B was the 2nd white dwarf ever discovered. It was discovered on January 31, 1862,  by Alvan Graham Clark.
• GAEL: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Grammar_%26_Alphabet_of_the_Egyptian_Language
• For crystallization of white dwarfs: https://scitechdaily.com/gaia-reveals-for-the-first-time-crystallization-in-white-dwarfs/
• Joseph Smith quote: http://signaturebookslibrary.org/essential-joseph-smith-49/
• Mass of Sirius B: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius
• Diameter of Sirius B, Weight on Sirius B: https://www.space.com/1862-nearby-star-smaller-earth-massive-sun.html
• Diameter of earth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth
• Age of Sirius AB: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/1752936_The_Age_and_Progenitor_Mass_of_Sirius_B
• When dinosaurs evolved: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_dinosaurs
• Lifespan of white dwarfs: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/four-types-stars-will-not-exist-billions-or-even-trillions-years-180971299/
• Random stuff:  Apparently a tribe in Africa knew about Sirius B’s existence ka, and knew that energy from these stars comes to the sun via a magnetic field?: https://annetittensor.wordpress.com/2015/04/18/the-sirius-star-system-a-b-and-c/amp/; https://face2faceafrica.com/article/the-dogon-tribe-of-mali-discovered-this-invisible-star-centuries-before-galileo-invented-the-telescope
• Some more LDS views of Kolob as Sirius: https://bycommonconsent.com/2006/11/18/kolob-as-sirius/; https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/680myc/this_dude_may_havd_found_kolob_are_you_sirius/?utm_source=xpromo&utm_medium=amp&utm_name=amp_comment_iterations&utm_term=control_2&utm_content=post_body; https://thelunchisfree.com/2017/04/26/finding-kolob/