1908 Leavitt's law: the period-luminosity relationship for Cepheid variables

Before Leavitt discovered the period-luminosity relationship for Cepheid variables, the only techniques available to astronomers for measuring the distance to a star were based on parallax and triangulation. Such techniques can only be used for measuring distances up to several hundred light years. Leavitt's work allowed her to calculate the distance to the Small Magellanic Cloud which was 200,000 light years away. Leavitt's discovery of a way to accurately measure distances on an inter-galactic scale, paved the way for modern astronomy's understanding of the structure and scale of the universe. The accomplishments of Edwin Hubble, the American astronomer who established that the universe is expanding, also were made possible by Leavitt's groundbreaking research.

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Category:
Astronomy

Completion Status:
yes

Patent Number:
N/A

Co-Inventor:
none