Breakthrough of directional statistics in space science

It should be no surprise that already back in the 17-18th centuries important foundations of modern statistical theory were formulated to address astronomical problems, the astronomers were the statisticians. For instance the 'almost coincidence' in the orbits of the planets in our Solar System with the ecliptic has intrigued the scientists for a long time. Even D. Bernoulli (in the 1730's) wondered if this fact could happen 'by chance'. In a statistical framework, one could think of using a uniformity test on the sphere. Testing isotropy or, equivalently, testing uniformity on the unit hypersphere is one of the oldest as well as most fundamental problems in directional statistics and it is still much considered nowadays.
Furthermore with the increasing astronomical data, innovative modern directional statistical theories and models have been proposed to deal with space science issues such as tracking space objects.
In this talk, we will provide a review of the many old and recent developments of directional statistics animated by interesting applications in space science. This is a joint work with Christophe Ley.