Henrietta Levitt came up with a yardstick to measure the universe. Every time scientists took measurements with this yardstick, it was like the whole universe fundamentally changed. It was not until we started to be able to measure distances in the cosmos that we knew that other galaxies existed.
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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