State what is meant by a standard candle.
Explain how a standard candle can be used to measure astronomical distances.
A standard candle in a distant galaxy is found to have a luminosity of 2.0 × 1036 W and a radiant flux intensity on Earth of 2.59 × 10–15 W m–2.
Show that the distance of the galaxy from the Earth is about 8 × 1024 m.
The cosmic distance ladder is a way of categorising the different methods of measuring astronomical distances, as shown in Fig. 1.1.
Fig. 1.1
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