Related papers: DIRECT Distances to Local Group Galaxies
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.…
Over the last few years, rapid progress has been made in distance measurements for nearby galaxies based on the magnitude of the tip of red giant branch stars. Current CCD surveys with HST and large ground- based telescopes bring…
Motivated by an amazing range of reported distances to the nearby Local Group spiral galaxy M33, we have obtained deep near-infrared photometry for 26 long-period Cepheids in this galaxy with the ESO VLT. From the data we constructed…
We report on the discovery of three new dwarf galaxies in the Local Group. These galaxies are found in new CFHT/MegaPrime g,i imaging of the south-western quadrant of M31, extending our extant survey area to include the majority of the…
Dwarf galaxies in the Local Group provide a unique astrophysical laboratory. Despite their proximity some of these systems still lack a reliable distance determination as well as studies of their stellar content and star formation history.…
M31, our closest neighboring galaxy, is a stepping stone to studies of stellar evolution, star formation, galaxy evolution, and cosmology. However, due to the difficulties of performing photometry in such crowded fields and the lack of wide…
The accuracy of extragalactic distance measurements ultimately depends on robust, high-precision determinations of the distances to the galaxies in the local volume. Following our detailed study addressing possible publication bias in the…
Distances to galaxies in the Local Group are reviewed. In particular, the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud is found to be $(m-M)_0 = 18.52 \pm 0.10$, corresponding to $50,600 \pm 2,400$ pc. The importance of M31 as an analog of the…
We present preliminary results of a long-term study aimed at answering a number of open questions on the evolution of starbursts in local galaxies. The project employes mainly HST data from the ultraviolet to the red of the stellar…
The cosmic distance scale largely depends on distance determinations to Local Group galaxies. In this sense, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is a key rung to better constrain the cosmic distance ladder. A project was started in 1999 to firmly…
Variable stars have been used for over one hundred years as probes for determining astronomical distances; these distances can be used to map the three-dimensional (3D) structure of nearby galaxies. Exploiting the effect that moving to 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…
We discuss the first results from ongoing studies of the resolved stellar populations in the outskirts of our nearest large neighbour, M31. Deep HST/WFPC2 archival observations are used to construct colour-magnitude-diagrams which reach…
This paper summaries the status of a large project to improve distance scales of various classes of variable stars. This is being carried out by a large group in Cape Town, Japan, England and the USA. The results are illustrated by giving…
Great investments of observing time have been dedicated to the study of nearby spiral galaxies with diverse goals ranging from understanding the star formation process to characterizing their dark matter distributions. Accurate distances…
Our knowledge of the dynamics and masses of galaxies in the Local Group has long been limited by the fact that only line-of-sight velocities were observationally accessible. This introduces significant degeneracies in dynamical models,…
We have the unique opportunity to observe and model nearby streams around the two large Local Group spirals Milky Way and M31 in great detail. However, the detection of streams around other external galaxies is required to verify the…
We present the science case for mapping several thousand galaxy (proto)clusters at z=1-10 with a large aperture single dish sub-mm facility, producing a high-redshift counterpart to local large surveys of rich clusters like the well-studied…
Extragalactic Cepheids are the basic rungs of the cosmic distance scale. They are excellent standard candles, although their luminosities and corresponding distance estimates can be affected by the particular properties of the host galaxy.…
We present the first direct distance determination to a detached eclipsing binary in M33, which was found by the DIRECT Project. Located in the OB 66 association at coordinates (alpha, delta)=(01:33:46.17,+30:44:39.9) for J2000.0, it was…