Astronomical Distance Determination in the Space Age

Knowing the distance of an astrophysical object is key to understanding its formation and evolution. Without an accurate distance, we do not know how bright it is, how large it is, or even when it existed. This volume highlights the tremendous amount of recent and continuing research into a myriad of exciting and promising aspects of accurately pinning down the cosmic distance scale, where possible focused on space-based contributions. 
These papers go one step further, putting the many recent results and new developments into the broader context of the physics driving cosmic distance determination. Thus, the volume will benefit researchers spanning a wide range of expertise, including theorists, observers, and modelers working on a large variety of spatial scales.



Originally published in Space Science Reviews in the Topical Collection "Astronomical Distance Determination in the Space Age"

• astronomical distance scale
• astronomical distance indicators
• secondary distance indicators
• redshift measurement
• indirect distance measurement
• indirect distance methods
• standard candles
• extragalactic distance scale
• galactic distance scale
• Gaia mission
• Hipparcos mission history
• trigonometric parallax
• Hubble Fine Guidance Sensor
• Hubble constant determination

• Department of Physics & Astronomy, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

  Richard de Grijs

• International Space Science Institute-Beijing, Beijing, China

  Maurizio Falanga

Prof Richard de Grijs is the Associate Dean (Global Engagement) of the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Macquarie University in Sydney (Australia). He obtained his PhD in astrophysics from the University of Groningen (Netherlands) in 1997and held postdoctoral positions at the Universities of Virginia (USA) and Cambridge (UK) before being appointed to a permanent post at the University of Sheffield (UK) in 2003. He joined the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University (China) in September 2009 as a full professor, actively contributing to the Institute’s international development until his relocation to Macquarie University in March 2018. His research focuses on improved calibrations of the astronomical distance scale as well as on star cluster physics.


Prof Maurizio Falanga received his university degree for Theoretical Physics and Astronomy at the University of Basel, Switzerland and his PhD degree in astrophysics from the University of Rome "La Sapienza”, Italy. He received the venia docendi in physics from the University of Basel in 2013. His scientific background is in high-energy astrophysics (hot universe and compact objects). Since 2009, he has been the Science Program Manager at the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) in Bern, Switzerland. Between 2013 and 2018 he was appointed as the founding Executive Director of the International Space Sciences Institute in Beijing, China. He is author and coauthor of about 200 published papers and editor of several books in his research fields.

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