Cepheid Variables (IMAGE)

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Cepheid Variables

Caption

These Hubble Space Telescope images showcase 2 of the 19 galaxies analyzed in a project to improve the precision of the universe's expansion rate, a value known as the Hubble constant. The color-composite images show NGC 3972 (left) and NGC 1015 (right), located 65 million light-years and 118 million light-years, respectively, from Earth. The yellow circles in each galaxy represent the locations of pulsating stars called Cepheid variables.

Credit

NASA, ESA, A. Riess (STScI/JHU)

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