Proposal Description

The recent installation of a TART radio telescope in Zambia highlights the growing role of data-intensive astronomy and the need for statistical and computational methods able to analyse complex observational data produced by modern astronomical instruments. Modern scientific research increasingly generates complex data structures, which require statistical and computational methods combining scalability, uncertainty quantification and interpretability. This ASIG (Astrostatistics Special Interest Group) session will bring together methodological contributions from statistics, statistical computing and artificial intelligence with applications in astrostatistics and astronomical data science.

Contributions related to TART data will be included but the scope of the session will be broader, addressing modern inferential and computational challenges across astronomy and astrophysics. The proposed talks will cover complementary perspectives on astrostatistics and astronomical data science. Topics include the future of statistical research in the era of AI; flexible inferential methods for astrophysical applications; the measurement of precise motions of faint stars by combining different telescopes data; and the use of distributed TART interferometric data. The session aims to create a two-way exchange between statisticians and astronomers. Statisticians will encounter new computational and modelling problems arising from astronomy. At the same time, astronomers and domain data scientists will be exposed to recent developments in statistical methods, AI-based tools for complex-data modelling.

By combining methodological advances and scientific applications, the session will show how modern statistics can support the analysis and interpretation of emerging astronomical data.