<p>Henrietta Leavitt discovered a relation between luminosity and period of variable stars, so it was possible to measure distance between two variable stars. I am curious to know how that was important back in time. How is the luminosity-period relation applied to measure distance? Was this method important because they finally had trusted apparent/absolute magnitude values to apply to the distance modulus equation?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-03-05T09:20:54.733Z
Duplicate of and related to: http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/3685/distance-of-extra-galactic-classical-cepheids; http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/932/how-can-we-be-sure-that-we-have-identified-very-distant-stars-correctly/940#940; http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/8037/determining-distances-in-space/8038#8038; http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/1177/how-do-we-know-that-the-intrinsic-brightness-of-cepheid-variables-corresponds-to.
Py-ser
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-03-05T14:58:11.910Z
the first link is kind of what I wanted, but I would like to know more about the equations. And I still miss the last part of the question: luminosity-period and the distance modulus equation, how are they related?
scapegoat
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-03-07T10:13:26.970Z
Please, be more specific and edit your question if some of the links do not answer your (not yet formulated) question.
Py-ser
<star><history>
How was Henrietta Leavitt's discovery important for star measurement?
scapegoat
# How was Henrietta Leavitt's discovery important for star measurement?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-03-05)

Henrietta Leavitt discovered a relation between luminosity and period of variable stars, so it was possible to measure distance between two variable stars. I am curious to know how that was important back in time. How is the luminosity-period relation applied to measure distance? Was this method important because they finally had trusted apparent/absolute magnitude values to apply to the distance modulus equation?

**Tags:** star, history
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Duplicate of and related to: http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/3685/distance-of-extra-galactic-classical-cepheids; http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/932/how-can-we-be-sure-that-we-have-identified-very-distant-stars-correctly/940#940; http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/8037/determining-distances-in-space/8038#8038; http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/1177/how-do-we-know-that-the-intrinsic-brightness-of-cepheid-variables-corresponds-to.  
> **username_0**: the first link is kind of what I wanted, but I would like to know more about the equations. And I still miss the last part of the question: luminosity-period and the distance modulus equation, how are they related?  
> **username_1**: Please, be more specific and edit your question if some of the links do not answer your (not yet formulated) question.  

---

## 0 answers

