An Invitation to the Realm of Nebulae

Abstract

With the advent of large astronomical surveys, astronomers are flooded with huge amount of data.? We thus seek for novel statistical tools that could help efficiently digest all the data and extract signals that otherwise be overlooked.? I will first give an overview on aspects of studies of galaxies and galaxy clusters, providing sufficient background on how we attempt to understand the complex processes of galaxy formation.? I will then discuss a few topics with which I hope potential collaboration between statisticians and astronomers could be formed, and new applications of statistical tools could be found.? These include: rapid and reliable estimates of distances to galaxies based on elementary observables, and robust detection methods of galaxy clusters from the presence of large background noise.