Adventurous Women Blog: zooniverse

December 13, 2013

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!

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

Start An Adventure Club!

A few years ago, some friends and I formed an adventure club. Over wine and appetizers we decided to sponsor four adventures per year. Each one would be an opportunity to try something new or challenging or just plain fun. We all agreed to limit the group to women -- no kids, no husbands, no significant others.

That was more than eight years ago and the group has tripled in size. We maintain an ever-growing, very eclectic, master list of possible adventures. We don't limit our adventure list in any way because what one woman finds adventurous another woman may find terrifying or routine; so variety gives everyone choices. Over the years, the group has done everything from trapeze lessons to flower arranging, ghost tours to skeet shooting and skydiving. We still meet every January to plan our adventurous year.

Now it's time for you to create an adventure club of your own. Look below for adventure ideas and the basics of starting a group in your neighborhood. Then go out and expand your horizons!