"Further, the team's new measurement settles a controversy that arose when the European satellite Hipparcos provided a distance measurement to the Pleiades so much nearer the distance than assumed that the findings contradicted theoretical models of the life cycles of stars.

This contradiction was due to the physical laws of luminosity and its relationship to distance. A 100-watt light bulb one mile away looks exactly as bright as a 25-watt light bulb half a mile away. So to figure out the wattage of a distant light bulb, we have to know how far away it is. Similarly, to figure out the "wattage" (luminosity) of observed stars, we have to measure how far away they are. Theoretical models of the internal structure and nuclear reactions of stars of known mass also predict their luminosities. So the theory and measurements can be compared.

However, the Hipparcos data provided a distance lower than that assumed from the theoretical models, thereby suggesting either that the Hipparcos distance measurements themselves were off, or else that there was something wrong with the models of the life cycles of stars. The new results show that the Hipparcos data was in error, and that the models of stellar evolution are indeed sound."

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This is HUGE. There may now be a systematic error bias in the Hipp data that can be found and corrected. The unresolved distance/luminosity question raised by the Hipp Pleides distance was very troubling. Great to have a totally independent method reveal an answer.

The Hipp revision will change estimates of stuff like the distance to the Andromeda galaxy and even the Hubble constant. Stay tuned.

-phil