Monday, September 10, 2012

Cosmological Distance - Definition

Cosmological Distance

A distance far beyond the boundaries of our Galaxy. When viewing objects at cosmological distances, the curved nature of spacetime could become apparent. Possible cosmological effects include time dilation and redshift.


Distance measures are used in physical cosmology to give a natural notion of the distance between two objects or events in the universe. They are often used to tie some observable quantity (such as the luminosity of a distant quasar, the redshift of a distant galaxy, or the angular size of the acoustic peaks in the CMB power spectrum) to another quantity that is not directly observable, but is more convenient for calculations (such as the comoving coordinates of the quasar, galaxy, etc.). The distance measures discussed here all reduce to the naïve notion of Euclidean distance at low redshift.
In accord with our present understanding of cosmology, these measures are calculated within the context of general relativity, where the Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker solution is used to describe the universe.

Source: wikipedia, NASA

Related: Universe Glossary

No comments: