A citizen science project that needs volunteers to classify images of almost a quarter of a million galaxies taken by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey 2.5-m wide-angle optical telescope.
Your job is very simple! All you need to do is look out for the features that mark out spiral and elliptical galaxies. There’s a tutorial showing how to classify galaxies according to shape (elliptical, spiral or irregular) and rotation (clockwise or anti-clockwise).
Those involved are directly contributing to scientific research, while getting an opportunity to view the beautiful and varied galaxies that inhabit our universe. Why does Galaxy Zoo need people to do this, rather than just using a computer? The simple answer is that the human brain is much better at recognizing patterns than a computer. Galaxies are complicated objects that vary in appearance enormously, and yet in some ways they can be very similar.
More than 150,000 people have taken part in Galaxy Zoo so far, producing a wealth of valuable data and sending telescopes on Earth and in space chasing after their discoveries. Zoo 2 focuses on the nearest, brightest and most beautiful galaxies, so to begin exploring the Universe, click the ‘How To Take Part’ link, or read ‘The Story So Far’ to find out what Galaxy Zoo has achieved to date.
Getting all these galaxy classifications is just the first stage of the project. What Galaxy Zoo really wants to do is some science, to try and understand what kind of galaxies there are, how they formed, and the processes that have changed them into the systems we see today. The journey from raw classifications to accepted scientific results is often long and arduous.
Project owners + coordinators:
Galaxy Zoo Team, team@galaxyzoo.org
posted on Nov 29, 2008:
Galaxy Zoo is between versions right now – Version 1 was a lot of fun if you are a galaxy buff. Some of the images were amazing – galactic lensing – colliding galaxies – un-identifiable things etc – give it a try when it starts back up…
posted on Feb 19, 2009:
Galaxy Zoo 2 is up and running! A message sent to me from the Galaxy Zoo team:
Dear all
Good news! Thanks to the hard work of all those who took part in our
test of the Galaxy Zoo 2 site, we’re proud to tell you about the
launch the full version of Galaxy Zoo 2 at http://www.galaxyzoo.org .
Galaxy Zoo 2 will let you spend more time with each of 250,000 of the
brightest and most interesting galaxies in our survey. There will be
more beautiful galaxies, and fewer faint fuzzy blobs. In return, we’re
asking a whole set of different questions about these galaxies so we
can produce the largest and most useful catalogue yet. It’s also
easier than ever to draw our attention to the weird and wonderful, and
the new site will also keep track of your favourites among the
galaxies you come across*.
By going to http://www.galaxyzoo.org and classifying galaxies – even if you
only have time to do a few – you’ll be contributing to a scientific
project that has led to time on some of the world’s largest and most
famous telescopes (including the Hubble Space Telescope) and is
changing the way we think about how galaxies form and evolve.
Thanks for your help
Chris Lintott & the Galaxy Zoo team.