The Physical Challenges of Astrostatistics

Astrostatistics is developing fast as astronomy is confronted to huge volumes of data. This constitutes undoubtly a new era through a move from object- to data-driven astrophysics. We can distinguish two types of challenges: the first one is related to the exploration of the data space and the second one is the physical interpretation of the results of this exploration. Astrostatistics cannot be reduced to the technical issues brought by methods and algorithms required to analyse the data. Despite these tools are not part of the cursus of astronomers, things are changing rapidly through schools, training sessions, collaborations with experts (statisticians) as well as developments of specific tools adapted to astronomical data. The use of new techniques pervades the astronomical literature. To convince more and more astronomers to switch to this new approach to do science, it is important to demonstrate the relevance of astrostatistics results.