Related papers: Analysing surveys of our Galaxy I: basic astrometr…
We perform an extensive review of the numerous studies and methods used to determine the total mass of the Milky Way. We group the various methods into seven broad classes, including: i) estimating Galactic escape velocity using high…
Theoretical galaxy formation models are an established and powerful tool for interpreting the astrophysical significance of observational data, particularly galaxy surveys. Such models have been utilised with great success by optical…
Our knowledge of the Universe remains discovery-led: in the absence of adequate physics-based theory, interpretation of new results requires a scientific methodology. Commonly, scientific progress in astrophysics is motivated by the…
In the standard (classic) approach, galaxy clustering measurements from spectroscopic surveys are compressed into baryon acoustic oscillations and redshift space distortions measurements, which in turn can be compared to cosmological…
We analyse the radial and tangential velocity fields in the Galaxy as seen from the Sun by using as a first approximation a simple axisymmetric model, which we then compare with the corresponding fields in a barred N-body model of the Milky…
Galaxy redshift surveys have achieved significant progress over the last couple of decades. Those surveys tell us in the most straightforward way what our local universe looks like. While the galaxy distribution traces the bright side of…
The next decade of survey astronomy has the potential to transform our knowledge of variable stars. Stellar variability underpins our knowledge of the cosmological distance ladder, and provides direct tests of stellar formation and…
We present a review of recent studies of the formation and evolution of the Milky Way galaxy, in particular based on large samples of non-kinematically selected stars with available proper motions. The Milky Way is argued to be a reasonable…
Recent galaxy redshift surveys have brought in a large amount of accurate cosmological data out to redshift 0.3, and future surveys are expected to achieve a high degree of completeness out to a redshift exceeding 1. Consequently, a…
Galaxy spectra are a rich source of kinematical information since the shapes of the absorption lines reflect the movement of stars along the line-of-sight. We present a technique to directly build a dynamical model for a galaxy by fitting…
Current data broadly support trends of galaxy surface brightness profile amplitude and shape with total stellar mass predicted by state-of-the-art Lambda-CDM cosmological simulations, although recent results show signs of interesting…
A number of large spectroscopic surveys of stars in the Milky Way are under way or are being planned. In this context it is important to discuss the extent to which elemental abundances can be used as discriminators between different (known…
For nearly a century, imaging and spectroscopic surveys of galaxies have given us information about the contents of the universe. We attempt to define the logical endpoint of such surveys by defining not the next galaxy survey, but the…
Data analysis methods have always been of critical importance for quantitative sciences. In astronomy, the increasing scale of current and future surveys is driving a trend towards a separation of the processes of low-level data reduction…
We present a collection of new, open-source computational tools for numerically modeling recent large-scale observational data sets using modern cosmology theory. Specifically, these tools will allow both students and researchers to…
Galaxy redshift surveys are one of the key probes in modern cosmology. In the data analysis of galaxy surveys, the precision of the statistical measurement is primarily limited by the cosmic variance on large scales. Fortunately, this…
Cosmology has come a long way from being based on a small number of observations to being a data-driven precision science. We discuss the questions "What is observable?", "What in the Universe is knowable?" and "What are the fundamental…
I review the status of science with wide field surveys. For many decades surveys have been the backbone of astronomy, and the main engine of discovery, as we have mapped the sky at every possible wavelength. Surveys are an efficient use of…
There is an opportunity to advance both solar system and extrasolar planetary studies that does not require the construction of new telescopes or new missions but better use and access to inter-disciplinary data sets. This approach…
Most major discoveries in astronomy are unplanned, and result from surveying the Universe in a new way, rather than by testing a hypothesis or conducting an investigation with planned outcomes. For example, of the 10 greatest discoveries…