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.
