On the night of Oct. 5, 1923, Edwin Hubble observed a strange star that flickered in intensity at regular intervals. The star ...

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

The first fast radio burst, or FRB, was discovered in 2007 in archival data collected back in 2001, and scientists were ...

In 1925, Edwin Hubble's observation of Cepheid variables in the Andromeda galaxy revolutionized astronomy, proving the existence of galaxies beyond the Milky Way. This discovery, aided by telescopes ...

A colossal wave is rolling through the Milky Way’s stars, mapped by ESA’s Gaia telescope and reshaping our understanding of ...

A hundred years ago, astronomer Edwin Hubble dramatically expanded the size of the known universe. At a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in January 1925, a paper read by one of his ...

New research offers the most precise measurements yet of pulsating Cepheid stars, which may hold clues about the immense size and scale of our universe. Cepheids are a type of variable star that ...

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 ...

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 ...

Henrietta Leavitt was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the daughter of a Congregational minister. She attended Oberlin College and the Society for Collegiate Instruction of Women (later Radcliffe ...

In 1925, astronomer Edwin Hubble identified a Cepheid variable star, known as V1, in the Andromeda galaxy, then considered a nebula. This observation, made using the 100-inch Hooker Telescope at Mount ...