  We are pleased to present a Special Section on Statistics and Astronomy in
this issue of the The Annals of Applied Statistics. Astronomy is an
observational rather than experimental science; as a result, astronomical data
sets both small and large present particularly challenging problems to analysts
who must make the best of whatever the sky offers their instruments. The
resulting statistical problems have enormous diversity. In one problem, one may
have to carefully quantify uncertainty in a hard-won, sparse data set; in
another, the sheer volume of data may forbid a formally optimal analysis,
requiring judicious balancing of model sophistication, approximations, and
clever algorithms. Often the data bear a complex relationship to the underlying
phenomenon producing them, much in the manner of inverse problems.
