Over the Alps

Western Alps (Feb 4, 2005)

I took this photo yesterday while flying over the Alps between France and Italy, on my way to Torino from Paris. The conference in Paris was very productive. It was a very small meeting (maybe 20 people, with invited talks only) and had the purpose to allow theoreticians and observers to talk each other on the subjects of pulsating stars and Cepheids in particular. Cepheids are special variable stars that pulsate very regularly with periods from a few days to a month. Their intrinsic brightness. For this reason Cepheid stars are used as “standard candles” to derive the distance of far galaxies where they can be found. This relation between period and luminosity needs to be calibrated, which is possible by using very accurate observational techniques and specialized models. The meeting was an occasion for the people making the observations and the model to discuss their relative progresses, and to decide in which direction to continue. Since I am right in the middle of the two communities I found myself very involved in the discussion, which was a very interesting and useful experience.

SInce I spent most of my time at the meeting, I didn’t go around much taking pictures. I have a few of them, but I am not sure they are fit to be shown here, so for the moment I am posting a photo I took while flying over the snow covered Alps. I will spend the next few days in the small village of the southern Alps where my family lives. I will be back in Boston on Wednesday.