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Light echoes whisper the distance to a star

02-10-2008 · EurekAlert!

Taking advantage of the presence of light echoes, a team of astronomers have used an ESO telescope to measure, at the 1 percent precision level, the distance of a Cepheid -- a class of variable stars that constitutes one of the first steps in the cosmic distance ladder.

Keywords: light, echoes, whisper, distance, star, echoe

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