Related papers: Type II Cepheids as Extragalactic Distance Candles

Planetary Nebulae (PNe) abundance patterns have long been used to note signatures of nuclear processing and to trace the distribution of metals throughout galaxies. We present abundance gradients and heavy element ratios based upon newly…

The eighth part of the OGLE-III Catalog of Variable Stars (OIII-CVS) contains type II Cepheids in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The sample consists of 43 objects, including 17 BL Her, 17 W Vir and 9 RV Tau stars (first examples ever…

Classical Cepheids (DCEPs) are the most important primary indicators for the extragalactic distance scale. Establishing the dependence on metallicity of their period--luminosity and period--Wesenheit (PL/PW) relations has deep consequences…

We accurately determine a new Cepheid distance to M101 (NGC 5457) using archival HST/ACS V and I time series photometry of two fields within the galaxy. We make a slight modification to the ISIS image subtraction package to obtain optimal…

New and existing X-ray, UBVJHKsW(1-4), and spectroscopic observations were analyzed to constrain fundamental parameters for M25, NGC 7790, and dust along their sight-lines. The star clusters are of particular importance given they host the…

Anomalous Cepheids (ACs) are metal-deficient, core-helium-burning pulsating stars with masses in the range 1.2-2.2 M_S. Until recently, all known ACs were pure single-mode pulsators. The first candidate for an AC pulsating in more than one…

A deep and detailed examination of 29 classical Cepheids with the Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed three stars with strong nearby extended emission detected in multiple bands which appears to be physically associated with the stars. RS…

We present color-magnitude diagrams and luminosity functions of stars in the nearby galaxy IC 10, based on VI CCD photometry acquired with the COSMIC prime-focus camera on the Palomar 5m telescope. The apparent I-band luminosity function of…

In the second part of the OGLE-III Catalog of Variable Stars (OIII-CVS) we present 197 type II Cepheids and 83 anomalous Cepheids in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The sample of type II Cepheids consists of 64 BL Her stars, 96 W Vir…

Context: Cepheids are excellent tracers of young stellar populations. They play a crucial role in astrophysics as standard candles. The chemistry of classical Cepheids in the Milky Way is now quite well-known. Despite a much larger sample,…

Accurate CCD observations of three Cepheids in the SMC were made with the purpose of confirming their nature of second overtone mode Cepheids. The stars were suspected pulsating in the second overtone mode owing to the unusual light curve…

We report on the discovery of Cepheids in the Virgo spiral galaxy NGC 4535, based on observations made with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on board the Hubble Space Telescope. NGC 4535 is one of 18 galaxies observed as a part of The…

Variable stars have a unique part to play in Galactic astronomy. Among the most important of these variables are the Cepheids (types I and II), the RR Lyraes and the Miras (O- and C-rich). The current status of the basic calibration of…

We present a sample of 76 double-mode Cepheids detected in the 4.5 square degree area in the central part of the LMC. 19 stars from the sample pulsate in the fundamental mode and the first overtone while 57 objects are the first and second…

The separation between RR Lyrae (RRLs) and Type II Cepheid (T2Cs) variables based on their period is debated. Both types of variable stars are distance indicators and we aim to promote the use of T2Cs as distance indicators in synergy with…

We present the first application of mid-infrared Period-Luminosity relations to the determination of a Cepheid distance beyond the Magellanic Clouds. Using archival IRAC imaging data on NGC 6822 from Spitzer we were able to measure…

The extragalactic distance scale builds directly on the Cepheid Period-Luminosity (PL) relation as delineated by the sample of Cepheids in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). However, the LMC is a dwarf irregular galaxy, quite different from…

Almost half of all classical Cepheids do not pulsate in fundamental mode, and nowadays, the fundamentalization of their higher-mode periods is frequently applied to increase the sample size in astrophysical investigations and allow for…

We present revised and improved mid-infrared Period-Luminosity (PL) relations for Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) Cepheids based on double-epoch data of 70 Cepheids observed by Spitzer at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8 and 8.0um. The observed scatter at all…

In this paper, we will review major new results regarding classical Cepheids, in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). Specifically, we discuss recent work regarding multimode Cepheids and describe new…