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 ...

Henrietta Leavitt joined the Harvard College Observatory as a volunteer in 1895. She was appointed to the permanent staff in 1902, and eventually became chief of the photometry department. She worked ...

Comparison of simulation of three main star forming episodes in the spiral arms with the currently observed Cepheid variables. Oldest stars (red) are 400 million years old and the youngest (blue) are ...

This week on Looking Up guest host Caitlyn Voige illuminates a luminary by the name of Henrietta Swan Leavitt. When we look up into the night sky, stars look immeasurably small and distant, unchanging ...

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 ...

Astronomers from the University of Warsaw, Poland and elsewhere have detected a new classical Cepheid variable star. The newfound star, which received designation OGLE-GD-CEP-1884, has the longest ...

A cluster of young, pulsating stars discovered at the far side of the Milky Way may mark the location of a previously unseen dark-matter dominated dwarf galaxy hidden behind clouds of dust. The stars ...

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 ...