Categories: Podcasts

Podcast: Measuring Distance in the Universe

You hear distances all the time in astronomy. This star is 10 light-years away; that galaxy is 50 million light-years away; that Big Bang over there happened 13.7 billion years ago. But how did astronomers actually figure out how far away everything is? It’s not a single measuring stick. Instead, astronomers have built up a series of overlapping measuring tools (yes, we’re calling supernovae and variable stars “tools”), which take us from right around the corner to very ends of the Universe. Get out your ruler… no, the bigger one… never mind… just listen.

Astronomy Cast is a weekly podcast hosted by Fraser Cain from Universe Today, and Dr. Pamela Gay (of Slacker Astronomy fame). Each week we take a fact-based journey through the cosmos to explain the discoveries in astronomy, and understand how we know what we know.

Episode 10 – Measuring Distance in the Universe
Click here to listen to the show.

Measuring Distance in the Universe – Show notes and transcript

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Fraser Cain

Fraser Cain is the publisher of Universe Today. He's also the co-host of Astronomy Cast with Dr. Pamela Gay. Here's a link to my Mastodon account.