CEPHEIDS IN M106: HENRIETTA LEAVITT, THE CALIBRATION OF DISTANCES, AND HUBBLE’S DISCOVERY

Davide Maino, Professor of Experimental Physics, Università degli Studi di Milano in dialogue with Nicolas Estrada, astrophysicist, Thales Alenia Space, Gorgonzola

One of the observational pillars of the cosmological Hot Big Bang model is the discovery of the expansion of the Universe made by Edwin Hubble in 1929. This fundamental discovery would not have been possible without the painstaking work of the American astronomer Henrietta Leavitt. Her research revealed the relationship linking the absolute luminosity of a Cepheid variable with its pulsation period, thereby identifying “standard candles” that, like lighthouses allow us to determine distances of galaxies. But what makes the Cepheids in M106 particularly interesting? Let’s find out together.