COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Independently Determined Distances to the Magellanic Clouds

AST 9528372合作项目：独立确定麦哲伦云的距离。德克萨斯大学的托马斯·巴恩斯博士和普渡大学的托马斯·莫菲特博士希望用一种独立于标准星系外距离方法的技术来完成对大小麦哲伦星云距离的测定。目前的距离是通过造父变星周期-光度关系、天琴座RR平均绝对星等和主序拟合技术获得的。这些标准方法不一致，导致距离尺度不确定。Drs。巴恩斯和莫菲特将使用视觉表面亮度技术来确定麦哲伦星云的距离，目的是改进到这两个关键星系的距离测量。

AST 9528372 Collaborative Project: Independently Determined Distances to the Magellanic Clouds. Dr. Thomas Barnes at the University of Texas and Dr. Thomas Moffett at Purdue University expect to complete the determination of distances to the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds using a technique that is independent of the standard extragalactic distance methods. Distances are currently obtained using the Cepheid Period-Luminosity relation, the RR Lyrae mean absolute magnitude, and main-sequence fitting techniques. These standard methods disagree and lead to uncertain distance scales. Drs. Barnes and Moffett will use the visual surface brightness technique to determine distances to the Magellanic Clouds with the intent of improving the distance measures to these two key galaxies.