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- Light green boxes: Technique applicable to star-forming galaxies.
- Light blue boxes: Technique applicable to population II galaxies.
- Light Purple boxes: Geometric distance technique.
- Light Red box: The planetary nebula luminosity function technique is applicable to all populations of the Virgo Supercluster.
- Solid black lines: Well calibrated ladder step.
- Dashed black lines: Uncertain calibration ladder step.
The cosmic distance ladder (also known as the extragalactic distance scale) is the succession of methods by which astronomers determine the distances to celestial objects. A direct distance measurement of an astronomical object is possible only for those objects that are "close enough" (within about a thousand parsecs) to Earth. The techniques for determining distances to more distant objects are all based on various measured correlations between methods that work at close distances and methods that work at larger distances. Several methods rely on a standard candle, which is an astronomical object that has a known luminosity.
The ladder analogy arises because no single technique can measure distances at all ranges encountered in astronomy. Instead, one method can be used to measure nearby distances, a second can be used to measure nearby to intermediate distances, and so on. Each rung of the ladder provides information that can be used to determine the distances at the next higher rung.