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 ...

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 ...

Artist’s interpretation of the cosmic distance ladder — a succession of overlapping methods used to measure distances across the Universe, where each rung of the ladder provides information that can ...

The first method involves direct distance measurements from nearby stars and galaxies. In contrast, the second looks further ...