Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

The devil is in the distance

An apparent discrepancy between two different distance measurements to a faraway galaxy may lead to a revised value for the age of the Universe.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: A better cosmic yardstick? A geometric distance to galaxy NGC4258 reported by Herrnstein et al.5, combined with the discovery of Cepheid variable stars in this galaxy by Maoz et al.1, may lead to a revised value for the age of the Universe.

References

  1. Maoz, E. et al. Nature 401, 351–354 (1999).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Claussen, M. J., et al. Nature 310, 298–300 (1984).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Miyoshi, M. et al. Nature 373, 127–129 (1995).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Maoz, E. Astrophys. J. 447, L91–L94 (1995).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Herrnstein, J. R. et al. Nature 400, 539–541 (1999).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Bell, S. A. et al. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 265, 1047–1052 (1993).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Guinan, E. F. et al. Astrophys. J. 509, L21–L24 (1998).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Udalski, A. et al. Astrophys. J. 509, L25–L28 (1998).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Gould, A. & Popowski, P. Astrophys. J. 508, 844–853 (1998).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Udalski, A. Acta Astron. 48>, 113–145 (1998).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Udalski, A. et al. Acta Astron. 48, 1–17 (1998).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Stanek, K. Z. et al. Astrophys. J. 500, L141–L144 (1998).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Udalski, A. Acta Astron. 48, 383–404 (1998).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Gibson, B. K. et al. http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/9908149

  15. Mochejska, B. J. et al. http://xxx.lanl.gov/absastro-ph/9908293

  16. Feast, M. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pacif. 111, 775–793 (1999).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Udalski, A. et al. http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/9908317

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bohdan Paczynski.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Paczynski, B. The devil is in the distance. Nature 401, 331–332 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/43794

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/43794

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing