Guide to NED Redshift-Independent (Metric) Distance Search Results

(Latest Revision: 1 November 2010)

This page displays results from searches for redshift-independent (metric) distances for individual objects. These distances have been extracted from the published literature and are based on a variety of distance indicators such as Cepheids, RR Lyrae stars, supernovae, etc. These distances are distinct from and independent of expansion rate distances as calculated and displayed in NED's "Basic Data"; the latter depend on a selected value of the Hubble constant, modified by a variety of cosmological and/or local flow model parameters.

No attempt has been made to place these distances on a consistent zero point; they are distances as published. For the "Individually Referenced Moduli and Distances" the values are grouped by method and within each group they are sorted by increasing distance modulus. The metric distances complied here were gathered from the literature for NED by the amateur astronomer Ian Steer, working independently from his base in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.


The top section of this page displays a Summary Statistics table of NED's distances for the object. The first column gives the mean distance modulus with the standard deviation of the mean, and the minimum and maximum distance moduli, all in magnitudes. The second column of the summary table gives the same information in megaparsecs. The means and standard deviations are calculated by NED from the available distances; no values are rejected.

The "Individually Referenced Moduli and Distances" table has the following columns:
m-M Distance modulus in magnitudes.
err(m-M) Error in the distance modulus, if given, also in magnitudes.
D(Mpc) Distance in megaparsecs.
Method Method used to determine the distance (see below).
RefCode Reference Code for the article in which the distance is derived.
Notes Notes and qualifiers, usually self-explanatory (see below).
SN Name If the distance depends on one of the SNe methods, the supernova name is listed here.
Redshift Redshift of the object or host galaxy, if used to convert a luminoity distance modulus to metric distance, e.g. for Type Ia SNe.
H0 Adopted Hubble parameter in km/sec/Mpc, if not H = 70.
Adopted LMC modulus Adopted LMC distance modulus if not (m-M) = 18.50.

The various methods used to determine the distances are coded as follows:
BL LAC M BL Lac absolute magnitudes
Blue SG Blue supergiants
BS Brightest star luminosities
Brightest Stars Brightest star luminosities
BWC stars Baade-Wesselink Method (Cepheids)
C stars Carbon stars
Cepheid Period-luminosity (Leavitt Law) relation for Cepheid variables
CMD Color-magnitude diagrams
Delta Scuti Delta Scuti stars (high amplitude)
Dwarf Cepheids Dwarf Cepheids
EB Eclipsing binaries
FP Fundamental plane
GB Giant branch fitting
GC radii Globular cluster radii
GCFP Globular cluster fundamental plane
GCLF Globular cluster luminosity function
GCSBF Globular cluster surface brightness fluctuations
GCD Globular cluster dynamics
HII Regions HII region diameters
Horizontal Branch Horizontal branch absolute magnitude
M Stars M stars
Masers Masers
Mira/LPV Miras and long-period variables
Novae Novae
PAGB stars Post-asymptotic giant branch stars
PM Proper motions
PNLF Planetary nebula luminosity function
Red Clump Red clump
RR Lyrae RR Lyrae variable stars
RSV RSV stars
SBF Surface brightness fluctuations (I-band)
SDF Sub-dwarf fitting
SNIa Type Ia supernovae
SNII opt Type II supernovae (optical)
SNII rad Type II supernovae (radio)
Sosies "Look-alike" galaxies
TRGB Tip of the red giant branch (I-band luminosity function cutoff)
Tully-Fisher Tully-Fisher relation
WDCS White dwarf cooling sequence

Reference codes are clickable so the original paper may be quickly brought up.

The Notes column generally contains an abbreviated note with the details of the distance determination methods. A number usually refers to the number of objects. Object aliases are occasionally given in this column (e.g. the distance for the galaxy SDSS J002414.24-001457.2 comes from the Type Ia SN "SDSS 13835"). Abbreviations for most currently-used Notes are as follows:
A82 Aaronson et al. 1982 data
AC Anomalous Cepheid
ALLFRAME Analysis software
B Blue (0.44 microns) magnitude
BW Baade-Wesselink corrected
CF Courteau-Faber et al 1993 (1993ApJ...412L..51C) data
C-stars Carbon stars
cor corrected
cte Charge-transfer-effect corrected
DAPHOT Analysis software
Edat Elliptical galaxy data
EPM Expanding photosphere (Baade-Wesselink) method
EROS Experience de Researches d'Objects Sombres
Feast99 Feast et al. 1999 PL relation
FM Fundamental Mode
FO First Overtone
GC Globular Cluster
GCLF Globular Cluster Luminosity Function
g Green
H H-band (1.65 microns) magnitude
HIPP Hipparcos
HMCL Han-Mould et al. 1992 (1992ApJ...396..453H) cluster data
HSTKP Hubble Space Telescope Key Project
I I-band (0.85 microns) magnitude
inv Inverse Tully-Fisher relation
ISB Infrared surface brightness
J J-band (1.25 microns) magnitude
K K-band (2.2 microns) magnitude
KN04 LMC Kanbur and Ngeow 2004 (2004MNRAS.350..962K) PL relation
KN06 LMC Kanbur and Ngeow 2006 (2006MNRAS.369..705K) PL relation
KP Hubble Space Telescope Key Project
Ks K_s-band (2.17 microns) magnitude
LMC Large Magellanic Cloud
LMC K03 Kanbur et al. 2003 (2003A&A...411..361K) LMC PL relation
LMC STS02 Sandage and Tammann et al. 2002 PL relation
LMC W01 Willick and Batra 2001 (2001ApJ...548..564W) PL relation
LPV Long-period variable
MAT Mathewson et al. 1992 (1992ApJS...81..413M) data
MF91 Madore and Freedman 1991 (1991PASP..103..933M) PL relation
Mk III Mark III Catalog
MLCS2k2 MLCS2k2 SNIa light curve fitter (see Jha et al 2007ApJ...659..122J)
MLCS17 MLCS2k2 SNIa light curve fitter with RV = 1.7 (see Jha et al 2007ApJ...659..122J)
MLCS31 MLCS2k2 SNIa light curve fitter with RV = 3.1 (see Jha et al 2007ApJ...659..122J)
MW Milky Way
MW FSG03 Milky Way Fouque et al. 2003 PL relation
MW GFG98 Milky Way Gieren et al. 1998 (1998ApJ...496...17G) PL relation
MW GFG Milky Way Gieren et al. 2002 PL relation
MW HIPP Milky Way Hipparcos PL relation
MW P02 Milky Way Paturel et al. 2002 (2002A&A...389...19P) PL relation
MW STS03 Milky Way Sandage and Tammann et al. 2003 PL relation
NK04 MW Milky Way Ngeow and Kanbur 2004 (2004MNRAS.349.1130N) PL relation
OGLE Optical Gravitational Lens Experiment
Parallax Parallax-based, Lutz-Kelker bias-corrected PL relation
PC Period-color relation
PL Period-luminosity relation
PLC Period-luminosity-color relation
PNe Planetary nebulae
PSF Point-spread function
R R-band (0.65 microns) magnitude
r r-band (0.65 microns) magnitude
RRL RR Lyrae variable star
RSGV Red supergiant variable star
SALT SALT SNIa light curve fitter (see Guy et al 2005A&A...443..781G)
SALT2 SALT2 SNIa light curve fitter (see Guy et al 2007A&A...466...11G)
SBF Surface brightness fluctuations
SN Supernova
SNLS Supernova Legacy Survey
STR04 Sandage et al. 2004 (2004A&A...424...43S) Milky Way PL relation
STR04 Sandage et al. 2004 (2004A&A...424...43S) LMC PL relation
TD-Tully-Fisher Hubble Type-dependent Tully-Fisher method
TOM turnover magnitude
TR02 LMC Tammann and Reindl 2002 LMC PL relation
U U-band (0.36 microns) magnitude
U99 Udalski 1999 LMC PL relation
V V-band (0.55 microns) magnitude
W Wesenheit corrected
W91CL Willick 1991, cluster data
W91PP Willick 1991, Perseus-Pisces data
Z metallicity corrected
ZP zero point
z redshift

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