BREAKING NEWS: Hubble Detects Cepheids in Centaurus A, Measures its Distance

The First Cepheid Distance to Centaurus A

For the first time, astronomers have detected Cepheids in an elliptical
galaxy--Centaurus A--and used them to measure its distance. The astronomers,
based in Canada and the United States, say the galaxy is about 11 million
light-years from Earth. For the full story, including a color image from
the Hubble Space Telescope, please see
http://KenCroswell.com/CentaurusA.html .

Other recent stories:

May 28, 2006: The First Binary Centaur:
http://KenCroswell.com/FirstBinaryCentaur.html

April 19, 2006: Two New Galaxies Orbiting the Milky Way:
http://KenCroswell.com/BootesCanesVenaticiDwarfs.html

April 9, 2006: Black Holes in Quasars Spin Fast:
http://KenCroswell.com/BlackHolesInQuasarsSpinFast.html

March 10, 2006: A Solar Twin in the Big Dipper:
http://KenCroswell.com/HD98618.html

January 31, 2006: The Horsehead Nebula is Rotating:
http://KenCroswell.com/HorseheadNebulaIsRotating.html

January 5, 2006: The Tenth Planet's First
Anniversary:
http://KenCroswell.com/TenthPlanetFirstAnniversary.html

November 4, 2005: First Direct Distance to Andromeda:
http://KenCroswell.com/AndromedaDistance.html

View all the articles at
http://KenCroswell.com/articles.html .

Correct email: MagnificentUniverse "at" yahoo "dot" com.

Magnificent Universe wrote:
The First Cepheid Distance to Centaurus A

For the first time, astronomers have detected Cepheids in an elliptical
galaxy--Centaurus A--and used them to measure its distance. The astronomers,
based in Canada and the United States, say the galaxy is about 11 million
light-years from Earth.

Didn't look that close the other night! 'Course it was about 6 deg
above the horizon. :-(

Shawn

Shawn sdotherecurry@bresnannextdotnet wrote in
:

Magnificent Universe wrote:
The First Cepheid Distance to Centaurus A

For the first time, astronomers have detected Cepheids in an elliptical
galaxy--Centaurus A--and used them to measure its distance. The
astronomers, based in Canada and the United States, say the galaxy is
about 11 million light-years from Earth.

Didn't look that close the other night! 'Course it was about 6 deg
above the horizon. :-(

Shawn



For me it's altitude was around 83 deg at one point last night. Not far
from the zenith! ;-).

Klazmon.

M100 is 56 million light-years' distance, and Hubble dicovered Cepheids
there 10 years ago.
http://www.seds.org/Messier/more/m100_hst2.html

So where's the fun in 11 million lyr??

Llanzlan Klazmon wrote:
Shawn sdotherecurry@bresnannextdotnet wrote in
:


Magnificent Universe wrote:

The First Cepheid Distance to Centaurus A

For the first time, astronomers have detected Cepheids in an elliptical
galaxy--Centaurus A--and used them to measure its distance. The
astronomers, based in Canada and the United States, say the galaxy is
about 11 million light-years from Earth.

Didn't look that close the other night! 'Course it was about 6 deg
above the horizon. :-(

Shawn




For me it's altitude was around 83 deg at one point last night. Not far
from the zenith! ;-).

I'd like to see that some day.

Shawn

Joe Jakarta wrote:
M100 is 56 million light-years' distance, and Hubble dicovered Cepheids
there 10 years ago.
http://www.seds.org/Messier/more/m100_hst2.html

So where's the fun in 11 million lyr??

Not sure what the significance is, the article stated only that this was
the first time Cepheids had been used to calibrate the distance to an
*elliptical* galaxy, as Centaurus A is. M100 is a spiral.

--
Brian Tung
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/
The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/pleiadatlas/
My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.html

Joe Jakarta wrote:
M100 is 56 million light-years' distance, and Hubble dicovered Cepheids
there 10 years ago.
http://www.seds.org/Messier/more/m100_hst2.html

So where's the fun in 11 million lyr??


In addition to Brian Tung's reply about this being an elliptical
galaxy, the press release also mentions that the dustiness affects the
apparent magnitude and color of the Cepheids. I think the "fun" for
the invesigators was in doing the photometry and eliminating the
contaminating effect of dust to obtain a solution.

Tom

Joe Jakarta wrote:
M100 is 56 million light-years' distance, and Hubble dicovered Cepheids
there 10 years ago.
http://www.seds.org/Messier/more/m100_hst2.html

So where's the fun in 11 million lyr??


In addition to Brian Tung's reply about this being an elliptical
galaxy, the press release also mentions that the dustiness affects the
apparent magnitude and color of the Cepheids. I think the "fun" for
the invesigators was in doing the photometry and eliminating the
contaminating effect of dust to obtain a solution.

Tom