Unexplainable: The Yardstick That Recreated the Universe

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This week on Unexplainable, the yardstick that reinvented the universe. In the 1890s, Harvard University was trying to build a comprehensive database of the southern sky. Back then, being a computer paid better than working in the cotton mill and it was actually pretty good job if you were a woman who was interested in science.

In the early 1900s, Henrietta Leavitt made one of the most important discoveries in the history of astronomy: a yardstick to measure distances to faraway stars. Using this tool, scientists eventually transformed our understanding of the universe. They realized space was expanding, that this expansion was accelerating, and that ultimately, everything will end.

This episode originally ran on June 30, 2021.

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