Cepheid period-luminosity relation
Relación periodo-luminosidad de las cefeidas
- Date
- 1908-1912 · confidence high
- Place
- Harvard College Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
- Credited to
- Henrietta Swan Leavitt
- People
- 👤 Henrietta Swan Leavitt1868–1921
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Studying Cepheids in the Small Magellanic Cloud, Leavitt found that those with longer periods are more luminous. It turned these stars into 'standard candles' for measuring the universe.
The plates were taken at the Harvard station in Arequipa, Peru.
What it led to
- Size of the Milky Way (Shapley)
- Distance to Andromeda (Hubble)
- Hubble's law and the Hubble constant