How do Cepheid variables indicate distance? The length of these stars' pulsations is always related to their intrinsic brightness. Astronomers can use this knowledge to calculate distance.

Researchers using the testbed interferometer at Palomar Observatory have achieved the best-ever distance measurement to a type of star known as a Cepheid variable. The new results improve the ...

After a NASA spacecraft's recent landmark delivery of samples from an asteroid's surface, an Ithaca College scholar breaks down how astronomers gather and analyze information about the cosmos.

Early astronomers in ancient Greece figured out one cool trick based on basic geometry that would become the key to measuring thousands of distances in our own galaxy.

The physical characteristic of a galaxy that astronomers measure — from which they calculate its distance and age — is redshift: the elongation of light waves that results from a celestial ...

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 ...

There are several methods for calculating the distance to stars, and astronomers often have to combine methods to indirectly measure a distance.

The film comes via “ Measuring the Universe: from the transit of Venus to the edge of the cosmos,” a free exhibition currently being held at the Observatory.