Access

Article

Nature 371, 385-389 (29 September 1994) | doi:10.1038/371385a0; Accepted 19 September 1994

The Hubble constant and Virgo cluster distance from observations of Cepheid variables

Michael J. Pierce*†‡, Douglas L. Welch†§, Robert D. McClure†parallel, Sidney van den Berghparallel, Renè Racine†¶ & Peter B. Stetsonparallel

  1. * Kitt Peak National Observatory, National Optical Astronomy Observatories, PO Box 26732, Tucson, Arizona 85726, USA
  2. § Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M1, Canada
  3. parallel Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, National Research Council, 5071 W. Saanich Road, Victoria, British Columbia V8X 4M6, Canada
  4. Dèpartement de Physique, Universitè de Montrèal, C. P. 6128 Succ. A., Montrèal, PQ H3C 3J7, Canada
  5. †Visiting Astronomer, Canada-France-Hawaií Telescope
  6. ‡ Present address: Department of Astronomy, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA.
Top

The distance to the Virgo cluster of galaxies, a primary rung on the ladder to establishing the distance scale of the Universe, 14.9 plusminus 1.2 Mpc, has been determined through ground-based observations of Cepheid variables in NGC4571. This agrees very well with other modern distance estimates, and the extragalactic distance scale now seems established. Based on this distance, a Hubble constant of H0 = 87 plusminus 7 km s -1 Mpc -1 has been calculated.