Cosmic Exploration · discovery
The Cepheid Period–Luminosity Law
1912 · Henrietta Swan Leavitt
- Year
- 1912
Description
Leavitt noticed that the brighter Cepheids in the Magellanic Clouds pulse more slowly. Since those stars are all at much the same distance, the relation gives absolute brightness — and therefore distance to anything containing one. Every rung above it depends on this.
Open on the Cosmic Exploration shelf — the interactive card, the filters, and everything alongside it.