Related papers: Distances from Planetary Nebulae
This is the first of two papers reporting measurements from a program to determine the Hubble constant to 5% precision from a refurbished distance ladder. We present new observations of 110 Cepheid variables in the host galaxies of two…
Galactic planetary nebula (PN) distances are derived, except in a small number of cases, through the calibration of statistical properties of PNe. Such calibrations are limited by the accuracy of individual PN distances which are obtained…
The calibration of the Type Ia supernova distances using HST observations of Cepheid variables is discussed. A new maximum likelihood method of calibration is applied to derive the PL relation for a composite sample of Cepheids in the LMC…
Redshift-independent distances underpin much of astrophysics, and there exists a plethora of methods to estimate them. However, the extent to which the distances they imply are consistent, while crucial for the integrity of the distance…
There is a well-known discrepancy in the distance estimation for M60, a giant elliptical galaxy in Virgo: the planetary nebula luminosity function (PNLF) distance moduli for this galaxy are, on average, $~0.4$ mag smaller than the values…
In this paper, we derive a physical argument for the existence of Period-luminosity and period-luminosity-colour relations at maximum light. We examine in detail a sample of Cepheids in the Large Magellanic Cloud, and compare the variance…
We report on a first application of the infrared surface brightness technique on a Cepheid in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the variable HV 12198 in the young globular cluster NGC 1866. From this one star, we determine a distance modulus of…
The TRGB-SBF Project team is developing an independent distance ladder using a geometrical calibration of the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) method in elliptical galaxies that can in turn be used to set the surface brightness…
We accurately determine a new Cepheid distance to M101 (NGC 5457) using archival HST/ACS V and I time series photometry of two fields within the galaxy. We make a slight modification to the ISIS image subtraction package to obtain optimal…
The Cepheid Period-Luminosity (PL) relation is the key tool for measuring astronomical distances and for establishing the extragalactic distance scale. In particular, the local value of the Hubble constant ($H_0$) strongly depends on…
We have used archive HST WFPC2 data for three elliptical galaxies (NGC 3379 in the Leo I group, and NGC 4472 and NGC 4406 in the Virgo cluster) to determine their distances using the Surface Brightness Fluctuation (SBF) method as described…
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…
Uncertainty in the metal abundance dependence of the Cepheid variable period- luminosity (PL) relation remains one of the outstanding sources of systematic error in the extragalactic distance scale and Hubble constant. To test for such a…
Gravitational lensing by galaxy clusters can create extreme magnification near the cluster caustics, thereby enabling detection of individual luminous stars in high-redshift background galaxies. Those stars can include non-explosive…
This is a transcript of a talk that I gave in Cambridge on 17th July 2020 on the `Hubble tension'. I review the SH0ES analyses by Riess and collaborators and point out some internal inconsistencies, including a discrepancy between the…
We present time-series photometry of 21 nearby Type II Cepheids in the near-infrared J, H and Ks passbands. We use this photometry, together with the Third Gaia Early Data Release parallaxes, to determine for the first time…
We investigate the diffuse light in the outer regions of the nearby elliptical galaxy M87 in the Virgo cluster, using planetary nebulas (PNs) as tracers. The surveyed areas (0.43 squared degrees) cover M87 up to a radial distance of 150…
Cepheids have been the cornerstone of the extragalactic distance scale for a century. With high-quality data, these luminous supergiants exhibit a small dispersion in their Leavitt (period-luminosity) relation, particularly at longer…
We develop a statistical method for using multicolor photometry to determine distances using Cepheid variables including the effects of temperature, extinction, and metallicity and apply it to UBVRIJHK photometry of 694 Cepheids in 17…
Differences between the local value of the Hubble constant measured via the distance ladder versus the value inferred from the cosmic microwave background with the assumption of the standard $\Lambda$CDM model have reached over 5$\sigma$…