Other results from Hipparcos: Cepheid Distances
Recall, Cepheid variables have periodic light curves:
This cepheid variable, HIP 110991 shown above, has a Hipparcos distance of about 1000 light years. Only a couple cepheids were directly measured with Hipparcos (most are too far away!). A few RR Lyra stars were also measured.
These few variables are now the main calibration stars for distances to local galaxies (Rung #4). Using Cepheids, about 12 galaxies, with distances of about 20 or 30 million light years, have been measured.
