Astronomical Distance Determination in the Space Age

Book excerpt: 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"