Light seconds, light years, light centuries: How to measure extreme distances - Yuan-Sen Ting
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When we look at the sky, we have a flat, two-dimensional view. So how do astronomers figure the distances of stars and galaxies from Earth? Yuan-Sen Ting shows us how trigonometric parallaxes, standard candles and more help us determine the distance of objects several billion light years away from Earth.
Besides standard candles (objects that we know the intrinsic brightness of), astronomers can use “standard rulers” to obtain distances of astronomical objects. Standard rulers are objects whose intrinsic length we know. Explain, in principle, how standard rulers can be used to obtain distances.
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Meet The Creators
- Director Jeremiah Dickey
- Educator Yuan-Sen Ting, Gautham Narayan, Amali Vaz
- Narrator Addison Anderson
