Sirius in fiction below)—and even if such were eventually discovered, with an estimated age of 230 million years the system is too young to have fostered the development of life or a complex biosphere. Sirius AB is the alpha star of the constellation Canis Major (the great dog, sometimes styled as Orion's hunting dog), whence its cognomen "the dog star". The most commonly used proper name of this star comes through the Latin "Sirius", from the Greek Σείριος ("Seirios", "glowing" or "scorcher"). The ancient Greeks observed that the appearance of Sirius heralded the hot and dry "dog days" of summer, and feared that
Sirius Chaucer's essay "Treatise on the Astrolabe", it bears the name Alhabor, and is depicted by a hound's head. This name is widely used on medieval astrolabes from Western Europe. In Sanskrit it is known as "Mrgavyadha" "deer hunter", or "Lubdhaka" "hunter". As Mrgavyadha, the star represents Rudra (Shiva). The star is referred as "Makarajyoti" in Malayalam and has religious significance to the pilgrim center Sabarimala. In Scandinavia, the star has been known as "Lokabrenna" ("burning done by Loki", or "Loki's torch"). In the astrology of the Middle Ages, Sirius was a Behenian fixed star, associated with beryl and juniper. Its