Related papers: The Distance to M51
A serious candidate for dark matter in spiral galaxies are cold molecular hydrogen globules with a condensed central core and a disc-like space distribution probably similar to that of neutral hydrogen. This paper shows that the H_2 cores…
We propose a method of distance determination based on the internal structure and dynamics of disk galaxies. The method relies on the universal luminosity profile of a stellar disk represented by an exponential law. Calibrating nearby…
Thanks to the outstanding capabilites of the HST, our current knowledge about the M31 globular clusters (GCs) is similar to our knowledge of the Milky Way GCs in the 1960s-1970s, which set the basis for studying the halo and galaxy…
Accurate distances are key to obtaining intrinsic properties of astronomical objects such as luminosity or size. Globular clusters (GCs) follow a well-defined relation between their absolute magnitudes and internal stellar velocity…
We use images from the Hubble Space Telescope to determine the distances to a dozen objects with low surface brightness recently observed around the bright nearby spiral M101. Only two dwarf galaxies, M101-DwA and M101-Dw9, turn out to be…
The correlation between the luminosities and rotation velocities of galaxies can be used to estimate distances to late-type galaxies. It is an appropriate moment to re-evaluate this method given the great deal of new information available.…
We have used the Advanced Camera for Surveys on board the Hubble Space Telescope to obtain deep photometry of the NGC 300 spiral galaxy in the Sculptor group. The results have been used to derive an accurate distance determination based on…
We present Period-Luminosity Relations (PLRs) for 55 Cepheids in M31 with periods ranging from 4 to 78 days observed with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) using the same three-band photometric system recently used to calibrate their…
The scale radius of dark matter halos is a critical parameter for specifying the density distribution of dark matter, and is therefore a fundamental parameter for modeling galaxies. We develop here a novel, observationally motivated probe…
The extragalactic distance scale is fundamental to our understanding of astrophysics and cosmology. In recent years, the surface brightness fluctuation (SBF) method, applied in the near-IR, has proven especially powerful for measuring…
The two nearby galaxies, M31 and M33, are stepping stones for most of our current efforts to understand the evolving universe at large scales. We are undertaking a long term project, called DIRECT, to improve the direct distance estimate to…
The systemic velocity or redshift of galaxies is a convenient tool to calculate their distances in the absence of primary methods, but the uncertainties on these flow distances may be substantial due to galaxy peculiar motions. Here, we…
Despite the Milky Way's proximity to us, our knowledge of its dark matter halo is fairly limited, and there is still considerable uncertainty in its halo mass. Many past techniques have been limited by assumptions such as the Galaxy being…
I review selected current observations of distant galaxies and our interpretation of the fragile (and occasionally contradictory) data. Galaxies at the ``contemporary limit'' of technology and redshift (z~6) are difficult to locate in the…
The Whirlpool Galaxy is a well studied grand design galaxy with two major spiral arms, and a large satellite NGC 5195. The arms both show long uniform sections with perturbations ('kinks' or sharp turns) in specific regions. Comparing the…
New estimate of the distances of 36 nearby galaxies is presented. It is based on the calibration of the V- and I-band Period-Lumi- nosity relations for galactic Cepheids measured by the HIPPARCOS mission. The distance moduli are obtained in…
We present a method for isolating a clean sample of red giant stars in the outerregions of the Andromeda spiral galaxy (M31) from an ongoing spectroscopic survey using the DEIMOS instrument on the Keck 10-m telescope. The survey aims to…
Stellar photometry in nine fields around the giant elliptical galaxy M87 in the Virgo cluster is obtained from archival images of the Hubble Space Telescope. The resulting Hertzsprung--Russell diagrams show populated red-giant and AGB…
Distance measures on a coherent scale around the sky are required to address the outstanding cosmological problems of the Hubble Constant and of departures from the mean cosmic flow. The correlation between galaxy luminosities and rotation…
Recent studies of nearby spiral galaxies suggest that photodissociation regions (PDRs) are capable of producing much of the observed HI in galaxy disks. In that case, measurements of the HI column density and the far-ultraviolet (FUV)…