October 25, 2013

Adventure in a Galaxy Far, Far Away


Are you a science buff looking for a VERY cool (but free) space adventure? Do you love looking at those incredible shots from the Hubble Space Telescope? This, Ms. Citizen Scientist, is for you!

Last year Zooniverse (the amazing citizen science organization) launched the Andromeda Project and asked the public to help locate star clusters in our nearest neighbouring galaxy: Andromeda (M31). The project was a phenomenal success and in less than three weeks volunteers had classified more than a million images. This week Zooniverse wants to try and do it again! They just released a whole new batch of data into the Andromeda Project and they're calling this Round 2.

The data you'll see are amazingly detailed images from the Hubble Space Telescope, which has peered deep into Andromeda as part of the PHAT survey. The aim of the Andromeda Project is to the locate all the star clusters and background galaxies found in PHAT and to build up the most complete map of any spiral galaxy anywhere. This is amazing science that can only be done with the help of citizen scientists.To join the Andromeda Project visit http://www.andromedaproject.org/ 


Image from Dreamstime

No comments: