Stepping Stones to the Universe: DIRECT Distances to the M31 and the M33 Galaxies

通往宇宙的垫脚石：与 M31 和 M33 星系的直接距离

• 批准号: 9970812
• 负责人: Dimitar Sasselov
• 金额: $ 30.22万
• 依托单位: Harvard University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-07-01 至 2003-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9970812&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Stepping; Stones; Universe; DIRECT; Distances

Stepping stones to the Universe: DIRECT distances to the M31 and the M33 galaxiesDimitar D. SasselovDr. Sasselov is conducting a project called DIRECT. This project uses detached eclipsing binaries and Cepheids to refine the distances to two important galaxies in the cosmological distance ladder. Microlensing searches are now finding detached eclipsing binaries. Dr. Sasselov is extending these searches to include the two main Local Group galaxies visible in the northern sky, M31 and M33. These two nearby galaxies are stepping stones for most of our current efforts to understand the evolving universe at large scales. They are essential to the calibration of the extragalactic distance scale. They constrain population synthesis models for early galaxy formation and evolution and provide the stellar luminosity calibration.

通往宇宙的垫脚石：与M31和M33星系的直接距离。萨塞洛夫正在进行一个名为DIRECT的项目。该项目使用分离的日食双星和造父变星来改进到宇宙距离阶梯中两个重要星系的距离。微透镜搜索现在发现了分离的食双星。萨塞洛夫博士正在扩大搜索范围，将北部天空中可见的两个主要的本星系群星系M31和M33也包括在内。这两个邻近的星系是我们目前在大范围了解宇宙演化的大部分努力的垫脚石。它们对于校准河外距离尺度是必不可少的。它们约束了早期星系形成和演化的群体合成模型，并提供了恒星光度校准。