Talk from PhyStat 2003: Statistical Problems in Particle Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology, Stanford, Ca, USA, September 2003, 7 pages. PSN MOAT001.
astro-ph/0401404

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Abstract. Despite centuries of close association, statistics and astronomy are surprisingly distant today. Most observational astronomical research relies on an inadequate toolbox of methodological tools. Yet the needs are substantial: astronomy encounters sophisticated problems involving sampling theory, survival analysis, multivariate classification and analysis, time series analysis, wavelet analysis, spatial point processes, nonlinear regression, bootstrap resampling and model selection. We review the recent resurgence of astrostatistical research, and outline new challenges raised by the emerging Virtual Observatory. Our essay ends with a list of research challenges and infrastructure for astrostatistics in the coming decade.

Table of Contents

• THE GLORIOUS HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY AND STATISTICS
• STATISTICAL NEEDS OF ASTRONOMY TODAY
• ASTROSTATISTICS TODAY
• THE VIRTUAL OBSERVATORY: A NEW IMPERATIVE FOR ASTROSTATISTICS
• SOME GRAND METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGES FOR THE COMING DECADE
• Multivariate analysis with measurement errors and censoring
• Statistical inference and visualization with very-large-N datasets
• A cookbook for construction of likelihoods and Bayesian computation
• Links between astrophysical theory and wavelets
• Time series models for astrophysical phenomena
• INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDED TO ADVANCE ASTROSTATISTICS
• REFERENCES