Extending a cosmic yardstick
WASHINGTON — A longer cosmic yardstick promises to give astronomers a better grasp of how fast the universe is expanding and may offer clues to the nature of dark energy, the mysterious entity that accelerates that growth. New measurements based on intense radio-wave emissions peg the distance to the galaxy NGC 6264 at 450 million light-years with an accuracy of 9 percent, giving a look nearly three times farther into the universe than ever before.
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