One of the primary and most broad goals of astronomy is to determine the speed at which the Universe is expanding, a phenomenon that was first described by Edwin Hubble. In honor of the great scientist, modern-day experts have termed the constant that gives the Universe expansion speed Hubble's constant. At this point, calculations have brought scientists fairly close to it, but a fixed value has yet to be appended to it.

Now, with new measurement techniques, finding out the crucial number could be easier than ever. Astronomers have recently measured the distance between the Milky Way and another distant galaxy, and are now hoping to use this yard stick as a reference point in studying exactly how fast these galaxies are moving apart from each other.

“Measuring precise distances is one of the oldest problems in astronomy, and applying a relatively new radio astronomy technique to this old problem is vital to solving one of the greatest challenges of 21st century astrophysics,” Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) expert Mark Reid explained.

He is a member of a team that was involved in studying the distance between us and the galaxy UGC 3789, Space informs. By using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observatory in New Mexico, the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, and the Effelsberg Radio Telescope from Germany, the team was able to conclude that the formation resided about 160 million light-years away. The researchers presented the finds yesterday (June 8th) at the 214th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, in Pasadena, California.

“We measured a direct, geometric distance to the galaxy, independent of the complications and assumptions inherent in other techniques. The measurement highlights a valuable method that can be used to determine the local expansion rate of the universe, which is essential in our quest to find the nature of dark energy,” National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) James Braatz, who is also a member of the research team, said.