The Future of Massive Variability Searches.
Abstract
This is a personal review of various issues related to massive photometric and astrometric searches. A complete inventory of variable stars down to almost any magnitude limit will improve our understanding of the stellar evolution and the galactic structure. A search for detached eclipsing binaries will improve the distance scale, the value of the Hubble constant, and the age of the oldest stars. A search for supernovae will help the determination of cosmological parameters Omega and Lambda. A search for microlensing events will provide insight into the stellar mass function, dark matter, and may lead to a discovery of earth-mass planets.
- Publication:
-
Variables Stars and the Astrophysical Returns of the Microlensing Surveys
- Pub Date:
- 1997
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/9609073
- Bibcode:
- 1997vsar.conf..357P
- Keywords:
-
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 14 pages, 3 figures, latex, uses conf_iap.sty, invited talk at the 12th IAP Colloquium: Variable stars and the astrophysical returns of microlensing surveys, Paris, IAP, July 7-12, 1996