Measuring The Cosmos - Now With Data
Friday, December 12, 2014 - 18:10
in Astronomy & Space
Researchers from Imperial College London and the University of Barcelona have used data from astronomical surveys to measure a standard distance that is central to our understanding of the expansion of the universe, a much more accurate method than calculations related to general relativity. The new study is the first to measure it using observed data. A standard ruler is an object which consistently has the same physical size so that a comparison of its actual size to its size in the sky will provide a measurement of its distance to earth. Previously the size of this standard ruler has only been predicted from hypothetical models that rely on general relativity to explain gravity at large scales. read more