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1. INTRODUCTION

Between the 16th and 19th centuries, astronomy and statistics were closely allied fields. Many of the foundations of mathematical statistics were laid by astronomers such as Tycho Brahe, Galileo, Tobias Mayer and Adrien Legendre Stigler 1986). But this relationship weakened during the late 19th century, as statistics turned to applications in the social sciences and industry, astronomy reaped benefits from mathematical physics. A by-product of this shift is that most astronomers are trained by physicists and receive little or no formal education in statistics. Most astronomers are only vaguely aware of the tremendous advances in statistical theory and practice of the last few decades. Similarly, with the notable exception of galaxy clustering studies by Jerzy Neyman and Elizabeth Scott in the 1950-60s, statisticians became unaware of the tremendous developments in astronomy.

Mutual interest in astrostatistics has reemerged during the past decade. The comparison of astronomical data to astrophysical questions is becoming increasingly complex, outpacing the capabilities of traditional statistical methods. About 500 astronomical papers annually have `statistics' or `statistical' in their abstracts, yet they rarely refer to contemporary statistical texts or monographs for methodological guidance. Statistical procedures implemented in Numerical Recipes (Press et al. 1992) are used on a daily basis.

Recent cross-disciplinary efforts in astrostatistics have produced valuable resources. A number of conferences have been held in Europe (e.g., Rolfe 1983; Jaschek & Murtagh 1990; Subba Rao 1997) and the U.S. (Feigelson & Babu 1992; Babu & Feigelson 1997), astrostatistical sessions at large meetings are being organized, an introductory monograph on astrostatistics has emerged (Babu & Feigelson 1996), and the Statistical Consulting Center for Astronomy is active (Feigelson et al. 1995: http://www.stat.psu.edu/scca). A monograph on multivariate data analysis, with FORTRAN codes and bibliography of astronomical applications, is very relevant to the issues discussed here (Murtagh & Heck 1987).

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