Related papers: Mathematical Underpinnings of the Multi-Wavelength…

An independent determination of $H_0$ is crucial given the growing tension between the Hubble constant, $H_0$, derived locally and that determined from the modeling of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) originating in the early universe.…

We use distance measurements in the nearby universe to carry out new tests of gravity, surpassing other astrophysical tests by over two orders of magnitude for chameleon theories. The three nearby distance indicators -- cepheids, tip of the…

Accurate distances are fundamental to interpreting many measured properties of galaxies. Surprisingly, many of the best-studied spiral galaxies in the Local Volume have distance uncertainties that are much larger than can be achieved with…

An improved version of the 3D stellar reddening map in a space with a radius of 1200 pc around the Sun and within 600 pc of the Galactic midplane is presented. As in the previous 2010 and 2012 versions of the map, photometry with an…

We have obtained single-phase near-infrared (NIR) magnitudes in the J- and K-bands for 77 RR Lyrae (RRL) stars in the Fornax Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy. We have used different theoretical and empirical NIR period-luminosity-metallicity…

Both the Galactic 21-cm line flux from neutral hydrogen (HI) in interstellar medium and the far-infrared (FIR) emission from Galactic dust grains have been used to estimate the strength of Galactic reddening of distant sources. In this work…

The results of the stellar photometry of the images ACS/WFC and WFPC2 of the HST are used to study stellar population and spatial distribution of stars in three edge-on galaxies: NGC 891, NGC 4144 and NGC 4244. The measuring of the number…

The nature of Galactic interstellar extinction is tested using reddening line parameters for several fields in conjunction with equivalent widths $W(\lambda4430)$ for the diffuse interstellar band at $4430$ \AA. The Cardelli et…

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…

The Cepheid period-luminosity relation is the primary distance indicator used in most determinations of the Hubble constant. The tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) is an alternative basis. Using the new ANU SkyMapper Telescope, we calibrate…

We present a method to estimate distances to Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars in the Galaxy, using spectral energy distributions (SEDs) in the near- and mid-infrared. By assuming that a given set of source properties (initial mass,…

We live in a dusty Universe, and correcting for the dust extinction and reddening affects almost all aspects of the optical astronomy. Recently Schlegel, Finkbeiner & Davis published an all-sky reddening map based on the COBE/DIRBE and…

We compare two methods of distance determination to spiral galaxies using optical/near-infrared (NIR) observations, the (I-K) versus M_K colour - absolute magnitude (CM) relation and the I and K-band Tully-Fisher relation (TFR). Dust-free…

We use data from the ESA Gaia mission Early Data Release 3 (EDR3) to measure the trigonometric parallax of $\omega$ Cen, the first high precision parallax measurement for the most massive globular cluster in the Milky Way. We use a…

Population-II pulsating stars provide a route to extragalactic distances that is independent of the classical Cepheid distance scale and complementary to geometric and tip-of-the-red-giant-branch (TRGB) methods. We apply optical Wesenheit…

Studies of star formation rely heavily on observations in the near-infrared, but they typically need information from other wavelengths for interpretation. We show that we can infer distances and estimate the membership of young stellar…

We identify red supergiants (RSGs) in our spiral neighbors M31 and M33 using near-IR (NIR) photometry complete to a luminosity limit of log L/Lo=4.0. Our archival survey data cover 5 deg^2 of M31, and 3 deg^2 for M33, and are likely…

We present a detailed analysis of the uncertainty on the theoretical population corrections to the LMC Red Clump (RC) absolute magnitude, by employing a population synthesis algorithm to simulate theoretically the photometric and…

The zero point of the reddening toward the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) has been the subject of some dispute. Its uncertainty propagates as a systematic error for methods which measure the extragalactic distance scale through knowledge of…

Forming a three dimensional view of the Universe is a long-standing goal of astronomical observations, and one that becomes increasingly difficult at high redshift. In this paper we discuss how tomography of the intergalactic medium (IGM)…