Cepheids and Miras: Recent Results and Prospects for the Era of Large Surveys (Abstract)

Volume 45 number 1 (2017)

Lucas Macri

Texas A&M University, 5313 Riviera Court, College Station, TX 77845; macri.lucas@gmail.com

Abstract

(Abstract only) I present results from two recently-completed projects: (1) the determination of the Hubble constant with a total uncertainty of only 2.4%, using the Hubble Space Telescope to discover more than 2,000 Cepheids and calibrate the luminosity of white-dwarf supernovae; (2) the discovery and classification of over 1,800 Miras in M33 using a new technique that outperforms traditional methods when dealing with noisy and sparsely-sampled light curves. I discuss prospects for the Extragalactic Distance Scale in the era of large surveys, focusing on Gaia and LSST.