A standard candle is an astronomical object that has a known absolute magnitude. They are extremely important to astronomers since by measuring the apparent magnitude of the object we can determine its distance using the formula:

m-M = 5 log d – 5

where m is the apparent magnitude of the object, M is the absolute magnitude of the object, and d is the distance to the object in parsecs.

The most commonly used standard candles in astronomy are Cepheid Variable stars and RR Lyrae stars. In both cases, the absolute magnitude of the star can be determined from its variability period.

Type Ia supernovae are also normally classed as standard candles, but in reality they are more standardisible candles since they do not all have the same peak brightness. However, the differences in their peak luminosities are correlated with how quickly the light curve declines after maximum light via the luminosity-decline rate relation, and they can be made into standard candles by correcting for this effect.

See also: parsecs.