by Jason Major on May 29, 2012

Measuring distance doesnt sound like a very challenging thing to do just pick your standard unit of choice and corresponding tool calibrated to it, and see how the numbers add up. Use a meter stick, a tape measure, or perhaps take a drive, and you can get a fairly accurate answer. But in astronomy, where the distances are vast and theres no way to take measurements in person, how do scientists know how far this is from that and whats going where?

Luckily there are ways to figure such things out, and the methods that astronomers use are surprisingly familiar to things we experience every day.

The Royal Observatory Greenwich is giving free presentations of “Measuring the Universe: from the Transit of Venus to the Edge of the Cosmos” from now until September 1.

Just in time for the upcoming transit of Venus, an event which also allows for some important measurements to be made of distances in our solar system, the video is part of a series of free presentations the Observatory is currently giving regarding our place in the Universe and how astronomers over the centuries have measured how oh-so-far it really is from here to there.

Video credits: Design and direction: Richard Hogg Animation: Robert Milne, Ross Philips, Kwok Fung Lam Music and sound effects: George Demure Narration and Astro-smarts: Dr. Olivia Johnson Producer: Henry Holland

Tagged as: blueshift, distance, Measuring the Universe, parallax, redshift, Royal Observatory, scale, Solar System, Venus

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