An image of the Cepheid variable star RS Puppis. The most accurate observation to date of distant stars that periodically change in brightness may spark a rethink of the rate at which the universe ...

Yardsticks are very useful around the house when you need a measurement. (I have also used them to fish out toys the cat knocked under a low piece of furniture.) They are standards by which we can ...

Cepheid variable stars are a vital rung on the “ladder” astronomers use to determine the distance to astronomical objects. These pulsating stars, which change in brightness as they also change in ...

Taking advantage of the very high spatial resolution provided by the Very Large Telescope Interferometer, a team of French and Swiss astronomers [1] has measured directly the change in angular ...

Cepheid variables are a type of star that undergo regular pulsations. The length of a Cepheid’s pulsations is always related to its intrinsic, or absolute, brightness in a simple way: The longer its ...

Physicists have improved the accuracy of a technique that uses variable stars to measure distances in the universe, providing a new figure for its expansion rate. When you purchase through links on ...