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R.C. Kennicutt (Steward Obs.)
This topical session highlights recent progress in the calibration of the extragalactic distance scale and the Hubble constant, with special emphasis on the final results from the Hubble Space Telescope Key Project on the Extragalactic Distance Scale. When HST was launched, published values of H0 ranged over more than a factor of two. Five years of observations with HST now provide a solid foundation of Cepheid distances to 25 galaxies, which in turn have solidified the calibrations of half a dozen secondary distance indicators. Together these observations have reduced the uncertainty in H0 from a factor of two to the ±10%\ level.
The session combines review talks on the distance scale by leading scientists outside of the Key Project team with talks by leading team members on the Key Project results. The session will conclude with a discussion of future directions in the field.
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