- #1
iGen3
- 1
- 0
Hello,
This may be a dumb question, but I by no means have any background in Astronomy, I'm pretty much regulated to Science Channel, History Channel, etc. I wish I could dive into all the fields on these forums but unfortunately I was not blessed with the gifts of understanding mathematics or physics beyond a basic level.
My question is how do you measure the distance of stars when it's light reaches us? I understand we can see that some planets are closer to us with depth perception, but what happens when we lose track of that depth perception?
I guess I'm just wondering how we know if something is 5 million light years from us vs. 7 million light years?
If I were to flash a light beam at you in pitch black from 10 feet vs. 100 feet, that light I assume would be smaller and dimmer from 100 feet, so you could assume that it was farther. But if I used a brigher flashlight at 100 ft and a much weaker, dimmer flashlight at 10 feet wouldn't it appear to be the same? If all stars vary in brightness (which I assumed is true) how do we standardize distance?
Thanks for the input.
This may be a dumb question, but I by no means have any background in Astronomy, I'm pretty much regulated to Science Channel, History Channel, etc. I wish I could dive into all the fields on these forums but unfortunately I was not blessed with the gifts of understanding mathematics or physics beyond a basic level.
My question is how do you measure the distance of stars when it's light reaches us? I understand we can see that some planets are closer to us with depth perception, but what happens when we lose track of that depth perception?
I guess I'm just wondering how we know if something is 5 million light years from us vs. 7 million light years?
If I were to flash a light beam at you in pitch black from 10 feet vs. 100 feet, that light I assume would be smaller and dimmer from 100 feet, so you could assume that it was farther. But if I used a brigher flashlight at 100 ft and a much weaker, dimmer flashlight at 10 feet wouldn't it appear to be the same? If all stars vary in brightness (which I assumed is true) how do we standardize distance?
Thanks for the input.