Cepheid
Americannoun
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Cepheids
plural
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Any of a class of variable stars whose luminosity fluctuates with an extremely regular period. There is a strong correlation between the absolute magnitude of a Cepheid's luminosity and its period. By comparing the apparent magnitude of a Cepheid to the absolute magnitude corresponding to its period, it is possible to determine fairly accurately how distant the Cepheid is from Earth.
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Also called Cepheid variable
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Noun Inflected Forms
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Upon closing, Masimo is expected to operate as a standalone company within Danaher’s Diagnostics segment, alongside its other businesses Radiometer, Leica Biosystems, Cepheid and Beckman Coulter Diagnostics.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026
The Washington, D.C.–based conglomerate makes medical and scientific tools, spanning research to diagnostics, including Covid tests by its Cepheid division—one of the first-approved and widely used versions.
From Barron's ● Jan. 8, 2026
These ladders are built from objects such as supernovae and special stars called Cepheid variable stars.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 9, 2025
She was particularly interested in Cepheid variables, which are stars whose brightness pulses regularly, so they get brighter and dimmer with a particular period.
From Salon ● Feb. 14, 2025
In 1956, astronomers discovered that Cepheid variables were more variable than they had thought; they came in two varieties, not one.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
The distance ladder method involves measuring objects, like bright stars called Cepheids or stars at the tip of the red giant branch, and comparing them to objects further away to determine the rate of expansion.
From Salon ● Dec. 9, 2024
Webb slices though the dust and naturally isolates the Cepheids from neighboring stars because its vision is sharper than Hubble's at infrared wavelengths.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 11, 2024
A key rung relies on observations of variable stars called Cepheids.
From Science Magazine ● Oct. 31, 2023
Researchers at the University of Warsaw measured the positions of 2,431 supergiant stars known as Cepheids using the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile.
From Nature ● Aug. 6, 2019
But unlike Hubble’s dim Cepheids, supernovas are visible halfway across the universe.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
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