An extremely precise measurement of the distance from the
Earth to a star system has enabled astronomers to better understand the way
exotic objects, like black holes, swallow material they rip off the surface of
nearby stars.
Published in the prestigious journal Science, a team of
astronomers headed by Dr James Miller-Jones from the Curtin University node of
the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), have measured
the distance to star system SS Cygni to be 372 light years, much closer than a
previous measurement made by the Hubble Space Telescope in the 1990s.