Want to Explore the Milkyway?

Fun Citizen Scientist News from the Zooniverse Team:

The original Milky Way Project (MWP), which asks citizen scientists like YOU to help measure and map our galaxy, launched three years ago. Since then more than 50,000 individuals have contributed millions of drawings of objects in our galaxy. The new MWP is being launched to map data from different regions of the galaxy in a new infrared wavelength combination. It’s very exciting! There are tens of thousands of images from the Spitzer Space Telescope to look through. After a bit of training, volunteers record what they see in this infrared data and Zooniverse scientists can better understand how stars form.

Get involved now at www.milkywayproject.org

In other awesome news: The Zooniverse has been named as one of six Google Global Impact Awardees for 2013. This award will allow for a platform that can support hundreds or maybe even thousands of new and exciting citizen science projects!

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

A Stellar Idea!

I read about 10-year-old Kathryn Gray's discovery of a supernova and thought it was time to post something about one of my favorite sit-at-the-computer adventures: Galaxy Zoo. (You can't be on the trapeze or playing paintball ALL the time.)  I thought I was being creative but then I heard Ira Flatow discussing it on Science Friday. I guess there must be something in the atmosphere....

What is Galaxy Zoo? It's another citizen-scientist opportunity that allows you to help researchers make amazing discoveries.  The Galaxy Zoo Web site offers a brief tutorial about the characteristics of galaxies and then you get to look at pictures captured by the Hubble telescope and apply your new knowledge.  It's ordinary citizens like us that help scientists process the tons of data coming from their research.

Galaxies aren't the only thing in the universe, visit Zooniverse to participate in research on sunspots, supernovae, new planets, and more.

If outer space isn't your thing, check out some of these other citizen scientist opportunities:

Track bees with The Great Sunflower Project

Track the seasonal changes in your own backyard with the USA National Phrenology Network

Or mark your calendars for The Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count.

Actually, there are so many things you can do, there's a whole site dedicated to citizen science projects.  Oddly enough, it's called Science for Citizens.



Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA 

The Perseids are Coming! The Perseids are Coming!

If you've been reading along for a little while you know I'm a fan of meteor showers. They're free, they're entertaining and they let your imagination drift away into the heavens. That said, tonight and tomorrow night, planet Earth will be drifting through a big cosmic dust bunny left by Comet Swift-Tuttle. All those little bits of debris will be entering our atmosphere approximately where the constellation Perseus appears overhead. Don't worry if you don't know your star locations, the best plan of attack is to just lie in a lawn chair or on a blanket and look up. If you're in a region free from light pollution you may see dozens of meteors per hour. That means a lot of wishing!

If you'd like to learn a little more about the Perseid meteor shower, click here for an article from NASA.

Thanks for the reminder, Abbie!



Image credit: Dreamstimefree 2776047: Moon-Star

Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence...really!

There are plenty of reasons to visit Puerto Rico, perfect climate, beautiful beaches, lots of history, and one gigantic reason that you may not know about. An hour and a half from San Juan, sits the Arecibo Observatory; home to the world's largest single-dish radio telescope. You may have seen it in Contact with Jodi Foster. You may have seen it in the James Bond flick, GoldenEye. But you may not know that what happens at Arecibo can connect you with E.T. and the depths of the cosmos.

Stretching 1000 feet across and covering nearly 20 acres, the Arecibo dish listens for sounds that aren't part of the natural noises of space. Arecibo is seeking radio signals that indicate the presence of intelligent life beyond our planet.

If you think about the vast expanse of sky, the great depth of space and the many different radio frequencies you start to get a sense of the tremendous amount of data that the telescope collects as it does its job. To analyze all that data, scientists would need an enormous super computer, which, of course, means enormous amounts of money. Lacking that, some very creative people thought it would make a lot more sense to use not one supercomputer but many, many, many small computers; each one working on a little chunk of data. This is where you come in.

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) developed SETI@Home so they can send manageable amounts of information to computers just like yours. Basically, you go to the SETI@Home site and download a special "screensaver" called BOINC. Once that's done, you can connect to SETI and have data transmitted to your computer. Then BOINC goes to work. According to the SETI site, "Like other screensavers it starts up when you leave your computer unattended, and it shuts down as soon as you return to work. What it does in the interim is unique. While you are getting coffee, or having lunch or sleeping, your computer will be helping the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence by analyzing data specially captured by the world's largest radio telescope." When your computer has finished working on its data, it lets you know it's ready to transmit its results. The site says transmission takes less than five minutes and you control when your computer reconnects with SETI.

SETI@Home just celebrated its 10-year anniversary. In the course of the past decade, 5 million people in 200 countries have been part of the search for life outside our world and about one million people are currently part of this most amazing research project. If you are a woman who dreams of off-world adventures as she gazes at the night sky or you just love the idea of being part of something really, really big, click here to check out the SETI@Home web page.

To listen to SETI Director Dan Werthimer talking with Ira Flatow on NPR's Science Friday, click here.




Image credit: BLUE BACKGROUND WITH STARS
© Robertas Pėžas | Dreamstime.com

Meteor Shower Tonight

Tonight, technically the hour or two before dawn on January 3, you may be lucky enough to witness a stellar show. The Quadrantid meteor shower can produce 1-2 meteors per minute during its brief but exciting peak. Those of you in the western US and Canada should grab your warmest gear and get ready for a grand backyard adventure. According to an article on MSN, "maximum activity this year is expected on 4:50 a.m. Pacific Standard Time." For East Coasters like me, the peak will be after sunrise.

To learn more about the Quadrantids and read the complete MSN article, click here.

Meteor shower: Geminids

The annual Geminid meteor shower began on December 7 and will peak this week during the evening of December 13. Sadly, a very bright moon is expected to obscure all but the brightest meteors. For the best viewing, grab a heavy blanket and a lawn chair then look up between 10pm and dawn. If you're patient and in a location without a lot of light pollution, you can expect to see a meteor (shooting star) streak overhead every couple of minutes.

If you'd like more information about the Geminids, where the meteors come from and why this particular meteor shower is a little unusual, check out this nice article by Mark at Meteorblog.

Meteor Shower Tomorrow Night

Here's a quick backyard adventure for those of you with minimal light pollution. The annual Orionids meteor shower will be streaking overhead tomorrow night, October 21. Settle into a comfy chair (and a warm sleeping bag) in the pre-dawn hours and watch 10-15 for shooting stars per hour. For a better show (but possibly cooler conditions), the Geminid display on December 14 should feature around 75 meteor streaks per hour and the Quadrantid shower on January 4 may grace us with 100 meteors per hour.

Meteor showers peak on a specific day but meteors can be seen in the night sky a day or two before and after the peak.

Looking for a little more background on meteors? Click here for Sky and Telescope's Meteor Primer.