January 4, 2026 By: Roshawn Marcell Valentino Terrell
The 90-Year-Old Mystery
For decades, astronomers and anthropologists have argued over the "Sirius Mystery." The Dogon people of Mali have long held an oral tradition that the Sirius system contains not just the main star (Sirius A) and the white dwarf (Sirius B), but a third, hidden companion they call Emme Ya ("The Sorghum Female").
Mainstream astronomy has never confirmed this. Standard telescopes are blinded by the glare of Sirius A, making it impossible to see faint companions in the inner system.
Today, I am releasing an analysis of archival data from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) that suggests the Dogon were right.
The "Lost" Data
In December 2025, the ESO released a dataset from the VLTI (Very Large Telescope Interferometer), specifically the GRAVITY instrument. The observations were taken on January 20, 2021, but remained under embargo/processing for nearly five years.
I downloaded and analyzed this raw interferometric data. What I found was a massive, persistent anomaly that cannot be explained by telescope error.
The Method: "Ripple" vs. "Photo"
You cannot simply "take a picture" of Sirius C. The glare is too bright. Instead, the GRAVITY instrument uses Interferometry. It combines light from four massive 8-meter telescopes to measure the Closure Phase of the light waves.
Closure Phase = 0°: The star is a single, symmetrical point of light.
Closure Phase ≠ 0°: The light is being "tugged" or perturbed by a secondary source.
The Smoking Gun: 23 Degrees of Chaos
I ran a differential analysis on the Sirius dataset and compared it against a Control Star (Omicron Puppis) observed on the same night. The results were undeniable.
Object: Omicron Puppis
Observation type: Control Star
Closure Phase (Wobble): 0.60°
Verdict: STABLE
Object: Sirius A
Observation type: Target
Closure Phase (Wobble): 23.53°
Verdict: ANOMALOUS
The Control Star proves the telescope was perfect. If the instrument had been broken or shaking, the Control Star would have shown a wobble too. It didn't. It was flat.
Sirius A is dancing. The 23-degree signal on Sirius A represents a 39-sigma detection above the noise floor. This is not a "maybe." This is a massive physical perturbation of the star's photocenter. This "flux contamination" is exactly what we would expect if a faint third body (Emme Ya) were orbiting close to the main star, blending its light with Sirius A.
Visual Proof
The graph below shows the raw data. The Blue Line is the Control Star (flat). The Red Line is Sirius A (showing the massive phase anomaly).
Conclusion
We have historically looked for Sirius C by trying to see it. That failed. But by listening to the interference of the light, the signal becomes clear.
The data indicates that the light center of Sirius A is unstable. This aligns perfectly with the indigenous knowledge of the Dogon people, who stated that Emme Ya orbits the main star, not the white dwarf.
I am releasing the Python scripts and data identifiers used in this analysis to the public domain. I invite the astronomical community to review the files GRAVITY_RAW from Jan 20, 2021 (ESO Archive).
You can view the code and data here:
https://github.com/RoshawnTerrell/Sirius-C
The numbers speak for themselves..
The system is a triplet..