Related papers: Toward an internally consistent astronomical dista…

Accurate and precise astronomical distance determinations are crucial for derivations of, among others, the masses and luminosities of a large variety of distant objects. Astronomical distance determination has traditionally relied on the…

The present status of the distance scale to Galactic globular clusters is reviewed. Six distance determination techniques which are deemed to be most reliable are discussed in depth. These different techniques are used to calibrate the…

The formal division of the distance indicators into primary and secondary leads to difficulties in description of methods which can actually be used in two ways: with, and without the support of the other methods for scaling. Thus instead…

We discuss recent theoretical and empirical results concerning cosmic distances and discuss the problems affecting the Cepheid and the RR Lyrae distance scales. In particular, we outline the key role that first overtone Cepheids can play to…

Knowing the distance of an astrophysical object is key to understanding it. However, at present, comparisons of theory and observations are hampered by precision (or lack thereof) in distance measurements or estimates. Putting the many…

Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are among preeminent distance ladders for precision cosmology due to their intrinsic brightness, which allows them to be observable at high redshifts. Their usefulness as unbiased estimators of absolute…

We propose a new model-independent strategy to calibrate the distance relation in Type Ia supernova (SN) observations and to probe the intrinsic properties of SNe Ia, especially the absolute magnitude $M_B$, basing on strong lensing…

The primary distance indicators are established in our Galaxy and the Local Group. There are at least four different methods which give good distances: methods using proper motions, RR Lyraes, Cepheid variables, and Type II supernovae.…

By collecting distances from the literature, a set of 73 planetary nebulae with mean distances of high accuracy is derived. This sample is used for recalibration of the mass-radius relationship, used by many statistical distance methods. An…

We give an overview of the current understanding of Type Ia supernovae relevant for their use as cosmological distance indicators. We present the physical basis to understand their homogeneity of the observed light curves and spectra and…

RR Lyrae stars are one of the primary distance indicators for old stellar populations such as globular clusters, dwarf galaxies and galaxies. Typically, fundamental-mode RR Lyr stars are used for distance measurements, and their accuracy is…

The RR Lyrae distance scale is reviewed. In particular, we discuss theoretical and empirical methods currently adopted in the literature. Moreover, we also outline pros and cons of optical and near-infrared mean magnitudes to overcome some…

RR Lyrae (RR Lyr) stars are a well-known and useful distance indicator for old stellar populations such as globular clusters and dwarf galaxies. Fundamental-mode RR Lyr (RRab) stars are commonly used to measure distances, and the accuracy…

We have obtained deep infrared $J$ and $K$ band observations of five fields located in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) bar with the ESO New Technology Telescope equipped with the SOFI infrared camera. In our fields, 65 RR Lyrae stars…

Overview of the determination of astronomical distances from a metrological standpoint. Distances are considered from the Solar System (planetary distances) to extragalactic distances, with a special emphasis on the fundamental step of the…

Here we review the efforts of a number of recent results that use old tracers to understand the build up of the Galaxy. Details that lead directly to using these old tracers to measure distances are discussed. We concentrate on the…

We perform a cosmographic analysis using several cosmological observables such as the luminosity distance moduli, the volume distance, the angular diameter distance and the Hubble parameter. These quantities are determined using different…

In this work, we present EDRIS (French for Distance Estimator for Incomplete Supernova Surveys), a cosmological inference framework tailored to reconstruct unbiased cosmological distances from type Ia supernovae light-curve parameters. This…

We present new observational results on the RR Lyrae K-band Period-Luminosity relation (PLK). Data on the Galactic globular clusters NGC 3201 and NGC 4590 (M68), and on the Large Magellanic Cloud cluster Reticulum are shown. We compare the…

We have obtained deep infrared J and K band observations of nine 4.9x4.9 arcmin fields in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) with the ESO New Technology Telescope equipped with the SOFI infrared camera. In these fields, 34 RR Lyrae stars…