Related papers: Teaching with Code: Globular Cluster Distance Lab
Cosmology contributes a good deal to the investigation of variation of fundamental physical constants. High resolution data is available and allows for detailed analysis over cosmological distances and a multitude of methods were developed.…
We discuss what hampers the rate of scientific progress in our exponentially growing world. The rapid increase in technologies leaves the growth of research result metrics far behind. The reason for this lies in the education of astronomers…
The absorption and emission of light by exoplanet atmospheres encode details of atmospheric composition, temperature, and dynamics. Fundamentally, simulating these processes requires detailed knowledge of the opacity of gases within an…
Here we discuss impacts of distance determinations on the Galactic disk traced by relatively young objects. The Galactic disk, about 40 kpc in diameter, is a cross-road of studies on the methods of measuring distances, interstellar…
Every cosmology lecturer these days is confronted with teaching the modern cosmological standard model $\Lambda$CDM, and there are many approaches to do this. However, the danger is imminent that it is presented to students as something set…
Hierarchical clustering is a common algorithm in data analysis. It is unique among many clustering algorithms in that it draws dendrograms based on the distance of data under a certain metric, and group them. It is widely used in all areas…
Traditional studies of stellar clusters in external galaxies use surface photometry and therefore focus on systems that are still bright and compact enough to be separated from the stellar background. Consequently, the latter stages of…
The history and current status of the cross-disciplinary fields of astrostatistics and astroinformatics are reviewed. Astronomers need a wide range of statistical methods for both data reduction and science analysis. With the proliferation…
Thin film technology is a most relevant field in terms of number of different applications and, even more, in how widespread the use of the technology is. Virtually all optical devices involving light beams or with imaging capabilities…
This paper describes a simple activity for plotting and characterizing the light curve from an exoplanet transit event by way of differential photometry analysis. Using free digital imaging software, participants analyse a series of…
We have undertaken a long term program to measure high precision proper motions of nearby Galactic globular cluster (GC) stars using multi-epoch observations with the WFPC2 and the ACS cameras on-board the Hubble Space Telescope. The proper…
New tools are needed to handle the growth of data in astrophysics delivered by recent and upcoming surveys. We aim to build open-source, light, flexible, and interactive software designed to visualize extensive three-dimensional (3D)…
The dynamical evolution of the globular cluster systems in galaxies is predicted, based on the standard dynamical theory normalized to the example of the Milky Way. The major processes varying with the galactocentric distance are the tidal…
In this book chapter we survey known approaches and algorithms to compute discrepancy measures of point sets. After providing an introduction which puts the calculation of discrepancy measures in a more general context, we focus on the…
We explore the use of strong lensing by galaxy clusters to constrain the dark energy equation of state and its possible time variation. The cores of massive clusters often contain several multiply imaged systems of background galaxies at…
In this article, we describe a very simple technique to locate naked-eye planets in the sky, to an accuracy of $\sim 1^{\circ}$. The procedure, comprising just three steps, involves very simple manual calculations for planetary orbits…
The first step in a science project is the acquisition and understanding of the relevant data. This paper outlines the results of a project to design and test network tools specifically oriented at retrieving astronomical data. The tools…
We present a method to infer reddenings and distances to stars, based only on their broad-band photometry, and show how this method can be used to produce a three-dimensional dust map of the Galaxy. Our method samples from the full…
Where appropriate repositories are not available to support all relevant astronomical data products, data can fall into darkness: unseen and unavailable for future reference and re-use. Some data in this category are legacy or old data, but…
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…