DENVER -- It’s a longstanding problem that may now be closer to a solution… just how fast is the universe expanding?

Astronomers presented some breakthrough research this week at the 214th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in California.

The discovery came through a new more accurate method of measuring the distance to a faraway galaxy.

Astronomers used two telescopes in New Mexico and Germany and a radio astronomy technique called the Very Long Baseline Array to measure the distance from Earth to the galaxy UGC 3789.

The astronomers discovered the galaxy is 160 million light-years from Earth. They said this figure could now serve as a basis for determining how fast the universe is expanding around our planet.

A Peek at the Planets:

Evening Planets: It’s been tough to do much stargazing lately with all the cloud cover, but hopefully this month will provide some clear evenings soon. Saturn will be high in the SW and will set 3.5 to 5.5 hours after sunset in June. Jupiter will rise one hour before Saturn sets, so there is a short late-night overlap when you can see both at once, very low in the sky.

Morning Planets: Venus will be visible in the E during the early dawn hours this month. Jupiter will be in the SSE to S at dawn. Mars will be near Venus all month, starting to the lower left early in the month and ending at the upper right of Venus. Mercury will appear very low in the ESE in midtwilight.

The Moon in Motion:

Full Moon: Sunday, June 7
Last Quarter: Monday, June 15
New Moon: Monday, June 22
First Quarter: Monday, June 29

From the History Books:

On June 18, 1983 Sally Ride became the first American woman to travel into space. She flew aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger for a 6-day mission. Before becoming an astronaut, Ride wanted to become a professional tennis player. She even dropped out of college to pursue the sport. After several months, she decided she wasn’t quite good enough for the professional tour and went back to school at Stanford to pursue her work in astrophysics.