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 ...

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 ...

Discover how astronomers use stellar parallax to navigate spacecraft in deep space without relying on Earth-based beacons.

Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook. Astronomers quickly become used to dealing with huge numbers. For example, in any one lecture, I might declare that the sun emits some 400 billion ...

Because they are densely covered in dust, the regions in which stars are formed are particularly difficult to study. Now there is an impressive map.

AUSTIN -- -- AUSTIN -- In the vastness of space, how far is far? That question has simmered in G. Fritz Benedict's mind since he was 8, when a family friend took him into the back yard of his home and ...

Gaia, through parallax measurement and other readings, gives the closest look at the Milky Way Galaxy to date.

Astrometry at centimeter wavelengths using Very Long Baseline Interferometry is approaching accuracies of ∼1 μas for the angle between a target and a calibrator source separated by ≲1° on the sky. The ...

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 ...

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 ...