Anyone interested in astronomy realizes that the stars are scattered through three-dimensional space and not, as the ancients thought, points of light affixed to a celestial sphere. The night sky has ...

A team of astronomers has used asteroseismology, or the study of stellar oscillations, to accurately measure the distance of stars from the Earth. Their research examined thousands of stars and ...

The cosmic distance ladder could soon have another rung. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. In around 5 billion years, the sun will ...

Cepheid variable stars exhibit regular pulsations whose period directly correlates with their intrinsic brightness (absolute luminosity). The Leavitt law establishes this relationship between ...

Pasadena, CA — Ohio State University researchers have found a way to measure distances to objects three times farther away in outer space than previously possible, by extending a common measurement ...

A reader from Jackson, Mo., asks, "How do astronomers know the distances to the various objects they talk about?" The answer is that astronomers use a "boot strap" process to determine distances over ...

Cepheid stars have predictable brightness changes linked to their periods. This period-brightness relationship lets astronomers calculate a Cepheid's distance. Hubble found a Cepheid in the Andromeda ...

For most of us, the countless bright spots in the nighttime sky all seem to be stars. But in fact, some of those spots are actually planets, or distant suns, or even entire galaxies located billions ...