standard candle
nounDefinition of standard candle
: candela
Examples of standard candle in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
By finding the very brightest red giants in a distant galaxy—the ones that toe this theoretical limit—the team could use them as standard candles to calculate distances and its own H0. — Joshua Sokol, Science | AAAS, "Debate intensifies over speed of expanding universe," 19 July 2019 Next the Cepheids are used to calibrate the distances to Type Ia supernovas — even brighter (though rarer) standard candles that can be seen in faraway galaxies. — Quanta Magazine, "How Triangulation Leads to Knowledge," 4 Jan. 2018 So far, standard candles have done it with precisions of 2–3%. — Davide Castelvecchi, Scientific American, "Here Come the Waves," 23 Apr. 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'standard candle.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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