According to a recent study in The Astrophysical Journal, galactic dust can bias distance observations. The study compares two methods for measuring galactic distances. One method compares the X-ray luminosity of a galaxy to its brightness at ultraviolet wavelengths. 

Dust can reduce and redden light from distant stars. The effect is greater when there is more dust between the star and the observer. 

Astronomers use light years to measure interstellar distances. A light year is the distance a photon of light travels in one year, which is about 6 trillion miles. Many astronomers also use parsecs to measure distance to stars. A parsec is the distance at which 1 AU subtends an angle of 1 arcsec.

The team found that dust within a galaxy can affect the L_X–L_UVmethod. Galactic dust, mostly made of carbon and silicon, can absorb X-ray light and re-emit other wavelengths. The more dusty a galaxy is, the more significantly it can skew the distance result

Astronomers also use astronomical units (AU) to measure distances in space. An AU is the average distance from the Earth to the Sun, which is about 93 million miles. AUs are commonly used to measure distances within our solar system. 

Astronomers also use radars to measure distances within our solar system. To measure distances to nearby stars, astronomers use a method called parallax. For distances to far away stars and galaxies, astronomers use Cepheid variables or type Ia supernovae as standard candles.

Astronomers use a few methods to determine the distance of stars:

• Stellar parallax This method measures the apparent movement of a star against the background of more distant stars as Earth revolves around the sun. The distance a star appears to have moved when measured from two positions in Earth’s orbit, 6 months apart, is called the stellar parallax. 
• Comparing brightness Astronomers can determine the distance to a star by comparing its actual brightness to its apparent brightness seen from Earth. 
• Redshift Astronomers can calculate the distance to far away galaxies using redshift. 
• Supernovae Astronomers can measure the distance to more distant galaxies by using the exploding stars known as supernovae. 

To determine how many light years away something is, scientists measure its distance in terms of the speed of light. Light travels at a constant speed of 186,282 miles per second (299,792 kilometers per second) in a vacuum. 

To calculate the distance of a light year, you multiply the speed of light by the number of hours in a year (8,766). 

For example, if an object is 15 light years away from Earth, its light will reach Earth in 15 years. 

Astronomers use light years as a larger unit than miles or kilometers because the distances between stars across the universe are very great. For example, the closest star to us other than our sun is Proxima Centauri, and it’s 4.2 light years away.

A recent study in The Astrophysical Journal found that galactic dust can bias distance observations. The study compares two methods for measuring galactic distances. The first method compares a galaxy’s X-ray luminosity to its ultraviolet wavelength brightness. The study found that the dust around galaxies, which is made up of carbon and silicon grains, mainly distorts the first method’s distance measurements. The dust has little effect on the second method, which deals with the radius-luminosity relation. 

The study highlights a breakthrough in astronomy, as it shows that galactic dust influences the accuracy of certain techniques used to measure the distances to galaxies. Dust attenuation is an important factor in interpreting observations of galaxies, especially for high-redshift galaxies. 

Galaxies, including our Milky Way, contain giant clouds of fine dust that are light-years across. Space dust, also called cosmic dust, meteor dust, and micrometeoroids, is the byproduct of interactions between space bodies and natural processes on space bodies

Please like subscribe comment your precious thoughts on universe discoveries

Full article source google

Best headphones on great discount on Amazon