A wide open space (It could be your backyard or a park.) Two Hula-Hoops (Alternatively, you could use two flat rocks or bricks that you can sit on.) A yardstick or meterstick (Use one that has clear ...

Let’s try a demonstration that we all enjoyed in elementary school. Close one eye, hold out your thumb at arm’s length, and align it with an object on the other side of the room. Without moving your ...

Have you ever wondered how astronomers measure the distance to other objects in the universe? How do they make claims that this nebula is 1,500 light years distance or that galaxy is 2.5 million light ...

Using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers now can precisely measure the distance of stars up to 10,000 light-years away — 10 times farther than previously possible. Astronomers have developed ...

Let’s try a demonstration that we all enjoyed in elementary school. Close one eye, hold out your thumb at arm’s length, and align it with an object on the other side of the room. Without moving your ...

Regular readers of my Stargazers columns have surely become accustomed to seeing some pretty big numbers. For example, in any one column, I might explain that our Milky Way galaxy is home to hundreds ...

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 ...

Astronomers from the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO), in collaboration with others from the REsearch Consortium On Nearby Stars (RECONS), have determined new distances to a group of faint young stars ...