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A new catalogue of stars, believed to be the most accurate ever, has been published as the result of a decade's research by a Cambridge University academic, giving the distances to almost 118,000 stellar bodies.

The book, which in some cases is up to five times more accurate than the previous guide, has been compiled almost single-handedly by Floor van Leeuwen at the university's Institute of Astronomy. It will help astronomers tackle fundamental questions about the origins of the universe with greater precision than before.