ClaudSkills / Science & Research / physics

Distance Ladder

Q: What is a Claude Code skill and how does the Distance Ladder skill fit in?

A Claude Code skill is a SKILL.md file that lives under ~/.claude/skills/<name>/ and tells the Claude Code CLI agent how to perform a specific task (instructions, prompts, allowed tools). Skills are auto-discovered at session start. Distance Ladder is one of 67,000+ skills indexed in the open ClaudSkills catalog, classified under the Science & Research category. Learn more at https://claudskills.com/learn/what-is-skill-md/.

Category: Science & Research · Sub-category: physics · Last updated: 2026-05-21

The cosmic distance ladder from radar ranging to Hubble flow. Covers parallax, spectroscopic parallax, cluster main-sequence fitting, Cepheid and RR Lyrae period-luminosity relations, Type Ia supernovae, Tully-Fisher, surface brightness fluctuation, and redshift-distance relations. Use when estimating, cross-checking, or critiquing any astronomical distance from a parsec to a gigaparsec.

About this skill (catalog notes)

Distance Ladder includes pricing or quota commentary. At roughly 2,351 words the SKILL.md is on the longer end of the catalog distribution.

Indexed lastmod: 2026-05-21
Catalog position: Science & Research · physics
Indexed related skills: 10

How Distance Ladder fits the catalog

Distance Ladder sits in the Science & Research category under the physics sub-topic in the ClaudSkills catalog. There are 10 related skills indexed alongside it; comparing a few before installing usually reveals which fits your workflow best.

These notes are auto-generated from features detected in the SKILL.md file and from this catalog's structure — they aren't part of the source repository.

From the source SKILL.md

There is no single method that measures every astronomical distance. Instead, astronomers chain methods into a ladder: each rung calibrates the next, and errors propagate with the chain. Radar pins down the Astronomical Unit. Parallax measures the nearest few thousand parsecs. Main-sequence fitting and spectroscopic parallax reach galactic-scale distances. Cepheids calibrate galaxies in the Local Group and beyond. Type Ia supernovae push to hundreds of megaparsecs. Redshift carries the rest. This skill covers each rung, what calibrates it, where the error bars live, and how to think…

What this skill does

Distance Ladder is a community-contributed Claude Code skill in the physics sub-category. It ships as a SKILL.md file that Claude Code auto-discovers under ~/.claude/skills/distance-ladder/ and loads when your prompt matches the skill's trigger.

When to invoke it: Use when estimating, cross-checking, or critiquing any astronomical distance from a parsec to a gigaparsec.

Who uses this skill

The Distance Ladder Claude Code skill is built for researchers, data scientists, academics, and analysts working with complex data and scientific literature. It's part of ClaudSkills (also referred to as Claude Skills or Claude Code Skills) — the open community-curated registry of 116,000+ SKILL.md files for Anthropic's Claude Code agent and the wider Claude ecosystem (Claude API, Claude Agent SDK).

How to install

Free

Manual install (2 steps)

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/distance-ladder
curl -L https://claudskills.com/skills/distance-ladder/SKILL.md \
  -o ~/.claude/skills/distance-ladder/SKILL.md

Or just download SKILL.md directly and drop it into ~/.claude/skills/distance-ladder/. Claude Code auto-discovers it on next session.

Skills live at ~/.claude/skills/distance-ladder/SKILL.md on macOS/Linux, or %USERPROFILE%\.claude\skills\distance-ladder\SKILL.md on Windows. See the full install guide for step-by-step instructions.

📱 Install from your phone or desktop Telegram

Open @claudskills_bot on Telegram, tap Open Desktop App, and the desktop app installs this skill for you. Or share the bot link with a colleague — they get the same one-tap install. Learn more →

Pro

One-click install via the desktop app

The ClaudSkills desktop app installs any skill directly into ~/.claude/skills/ with one click — no terminal required. Pro starts at $9/mo or $149 lifetime.

Pro

For the full experience including quality scoring and one-click install features for each skill — upgrade to Pro.

See pricing → Download desktop app

Frequently asked questions

How do I install the Distance Ladder Claude Code skill?

Install via the ClaudSkills desktop app (one click) or copy SKILL.md from the source repository to ~/.claude/skills/distance-ladder/SKILL.md and restart Claude Code. Both flows are detailed at claudskills.com/install/.

What does the Distance Ladder skill do?

Is this skill free to install?

Yes. ClaudSkills is an open registry — every skill keeps its source repository's license, and manual install via copy is free. ClaudSkills Pro ($9/mo, $79/yr, or $149 one-time) adds one-click install via the desktop app and a multi-signal Quality Score.

When should I use the Distance Ladder skill?

Use Distance Ladder when your Claude Code task falls under the Science & Research category — specifically in the physics area. Claude Code auto-discovers installed skills and invokes the right one based on the task description, so you can also ask Claude directly (e.g. "use Distance Ladder" or describe the task and let Claude pick). Browse related skills at /category/science/.

What is a Claude Code skill and how does the Distance Ladder skill fit in?

A Claude Code skill is a SKILL.md file that lives under ~/.claude/skills/<name>/ and tells the Claude Code CLI agent how to perform a specific task (instructions, prompts, allowed tools). Skills are auto-discovered at session start. Distance Ladder is one of 67,000+ skills indexed in the open ClaudSkills catalog, classified under the Science & Research category. Learn more at /learn/what-is-a-claude-skill/.

Cite this skill

If you reference this skill in a blog post, paper, or documentation, you can cite it as:

APA

ClaudSkills. (2026). Distance Ladder [Claude Code skill]. ClaudSkills. https://claudskills.com/skills/distance-ladder/

BibTeX

@misc{distance-ladder-2026,
  author    = {ClaudSkills},
  title     = {Distance Ladder [Claude Code skill]},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {ClaudSkills},
  url       = {https://claudskills.com/skills/distance-ladder/}
}

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Badge

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