The goals of this project are: (i) to understand the techniques to measure extragalatic distances in astronomy; (ii) to write a short scientific paper describing these techniques; and (iii) to make a brief oral presentation about your paper in front of your peers.

The main reference for your work is a scientific paper that describes the various distance indicators:

Jacoby et al., 1992, PASP, 104, 678: ``A Critical Review of Selected Techniques for Measuring Extragalactic Distances''.

Students will be grouped in pairs. Each group will be assigned a distance indicator.

All groups will have to read sections 1 and 2. of Jacoby et al. (1992). Each group will then focus their work on the section describing the assigned distance indicator. In addition to Jacoby et al., you are welcome to use other papers more specific to your topic.

Below you will find a description of the different parts of the short scientific paper you will have to submit.

• Title Page (1 page):
  • Title
  • Name of investigators
  • Affiliation (including email)
  • Abstract: summary of ideas presented in this paper (20 lines maximum)

• Introduction (1 page)
  • What is the distance indicator to be discussed?
  • Why is it important in the context of distance estimates?
  • Previous work on this area.
  • Short description of the following sections of this paper

• Description of the Distance Measurement Technique (2 pages, including Figures)
  • Physical basis
  • Key assumptions
  • Required observations
  • Calibration

• Discussion (2 pages, including Figures)
  • Range of application.
  • Random and systematic uncertainties.
  • Advantages/Disadvantages.

• References (1 page)

The oral presentations will consist of 10m talks by one of the students in each group. The presentation will be made using viewgraphs, power-point, or browser-based slides. After the talk, there will be a 5m period for questions to be answered by the two students of each group.