The Impact of Dust on Cepheid and Type Ia Supernova Distances

Understand

Milky-Way and intergalactic dust extinction and reddening must be accounted for in measurements of distances throughout the universe.

• This work provides a comprehensive review of the various impacts of cosmic dust focusing specifically on its effects on two key distance indicators used in the distance ladder: Cepheid variable stars and Type Ia supernovae.
• We review the formalism used for computing and accounting for dust extinction and reddening as a function of wavelength.
• We also detail the current state of the art knowledge of dust properties in the Milky Way and in host galaxies.