Sometimes, astronomy is a zoo.
One of the big problems in recent astronomy is that we’re collecting data faster than we can analyze it. This is no joke; modern survey telescopes equipped with digital detectors can generate many gigabytes of data every night. Sweeping across the sky, they look for asteroids, exploding stars, anything that changes from one night to the next. Computers can analyze the data, and in many cases they’re pretty good at it.
But not at everything. For example, you get an image that, to your eye, has a few hundred faint fuzzy galaxies in it. Your job is to identify the type of galaxy: elliptical, spiral, peculiar, whatever. Better hurry! By tomorrow, you’ll have 20 images just like this one, but of different parts of the sky. You think, I’ll program my computer to do this! One popular piece of software, called Source Extractor, or (seriously) SExtractor for short, can do a decent job. But it isn’t perfect.
Sometimes, you just can’t beat a human brain (no matter how much you may want to beat the human encasing it).
Chris Lintott, a UK astronomer (perhaps better known as the co-host of the beloved program "The Sky at Night") felt the same way (though, one supposes, not about the beatings). He and his team want to categorize thousands, hundreds of thousands of galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey images (if you think your camera is nice… the Sloan survey uses a 142 megapixel array). Why not open it up to the public, they thought, and let people get it a try?
So they created Galaxy Zoo. You sign up, take a brief test to see how well you can identify galaxies (it’s fun!), and if you can get a high enough score, off you go! You are sent a galaxy image (a program looks at all the data and decides if an object is a galaxy or not) and asked if it’s an elliptical, a merger (a product of two galaxies colliding), or a spiral. You click the appropriate button, and the next galaxy is automatically served to you.
The interface is slick and clean, and they really do give you everything you need. They send the same galaxy to multiple users, and see what kind of consensus they get on the morphology (shape) of the galaxy.
And in many cases, the galaxies sent to you have never been seen before. This little beauty was about the tenth one I saw:
I knew right away from the color and the patchy arms that this was a "starburst" galaxy, a galaxy that is undergoing intense amounts of star formation. A link was provided on the Galaxy Zoo page to the Sloan catalog page for it, and there was also a spectrum of it.
Bang! Whopping emission lines from oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, and an overall bluish spectral background. Oh yeah, this baby is popping ‘em out.
And this was my tenth galaxy to examine! What treasures lie in that data, never before seen?
Now’s your chance to find out. Go and explore space. Warning: it’s addictive. The hardest part is stopping.
Tip o’ the Sombrero (hahahahaha!) to Chris Lintott and Dave P.
July 11th, 2007 at 7:45 pm
Wow, cool! The test to qualify wasn’t hard at all, but man, once you get into it, some of those images can really be tricky.
July 11th, 2007 at 8:25 pm
I found a similar-looking galaxy: #588010879843500085
Mine wasn’t my tenth picture, though. It was after… we’ll say a few more. And on a COMPLETELY unrelated note: you’re right, this is really addictive.
July 11th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
Awesome project! People need to tap in more on the idle manpower of internet users like this!
Also, I found this one: http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=588017704011300880
But I’m not sure what it is, exactly. Looks like an elliptical galaxy, but it’s blue and very bright. Shouldn’t elliptical galaxies have old, yellowish stars?
July 11th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
Lucas’ oddity may be a superposition. Clicking to enlarge the spectrum, there are a whole bunch of narrow absorption lines at essentially zero redshift, saying “galactic star”, so this may have a foreground star contributing a good bit of the light.
Must … resist.. urge… to stare at more galaxies. But wait ’til you see what the Hubble folks have ready to release in a month or two (I’m writing some background). Deeply cool.
July 11th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
Addictive for sure. I think I just ran onto the Ring Nebula writ large
here. I’ve already reported one anomalous object, what looks to me like a 3-way merge. How many odd objects can one report before they start shooting my emails to spam? (That’s a half-serious question.)
July 11th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
The galaxies in the tutorial are more clear-cut than in the actual data.
What is this?
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587739457224704125
I clicked star/don’t know, but it might be an eliptical. I’m seeing a lot like this (Clicking star/don’t know at least half the time), so I am wondering. Is the cloudiness just due to the atmosphere?
July 11th, 2007 at 9:42 pm
Damn I love the internet sometimes. This kind of stuff makes up for a lot of spam.
I signed up too. Oh well, another reason not to get my behind off the chair…
July 11th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
It requires that I sign up before I can take the test. That’s not acceptable. If I fail the test I will have put another fingerprint on the web for nothing.
If I can pass the test, then I will sign up.
July 11th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
Another with poor resolution; again not sure whether to classify as eliptical or don’t know.
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587731511533109412
July 11th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
Blizno, I’m sure you could create an email account specifically for signing up if that concerns you.
July 11th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Gaijin, my instinct would be to classify both of your examples as elliptical. They both seem to be face on and I can’t easily make out any arms.
July 11th, 2007 at 9:56 pm
Another one I don’t know what to make of. http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587736813674758323
July 11th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
Thanks Kevin. Is is better when in doubt to click elliptical with stuff that looks similar to those then?
July 11th, 2007 at 10:04 pm
This one is mine. I’m naming it “George.”
Is anybody else getting instructed to login on every new picture? It tells me I’m not logged in, but then when I go to log in, it knows who I am and I can’t log in. Bug? Feature? Heavy load?
July 11th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
Two mergers I’ve seen so far:
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587736980109656174
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587741708879724651
And one kind of wierd one with a black line across it:
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587727214418133659
July 11th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
Well, I would hate to suggest defaulting to one selection over another when you aren’t sure, but from what I can gather after reading the tutorial and looking at a dozen or so images, the blob looking objects that lack definition tend to be elliptical. The hardest ones for me to identify are the edge-on and large angle types, where making out arms and things becomes difficult. In all honesty, I think you should go with what you feel is best. After all, everyone is going to get some wrong, and the astronomers know that. So, I think as long as you try your best to use the information on hand to make an informed decision, that’s really all anyone could ask for!
July 11th, 2007 at 10:14 pm
I found this really weird looking object:
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587742059990876440
Apparently, it’s a cosmic ray, judging by its flags. I never even heard of cosmic rays, but what a way to find out! I do notice it has some bright blue dots and seems to have a bit of a swirl in the middle, looking a bit like a ying-yang. Any significance?
July 11th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
Well and bless me if this isn’t one of the prettiest galaxy mergers I’ve seen in forever.
July 11th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
Oh, I dunno. I’m taken by the long jet/tail in this one.
July 11th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
Gack. URL: http://tinyurl.com/36sf24
July 11th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Damn. That is pretty sweet.
July 11th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
Lucas, that does have a spectrum similar to a G star: http://chemistry.beloit.edu/Stars/pages/spec.html
But what I don’t get is that the filter magnitudes make it look like it should be red! I need to investigate more.
RBH: email Chris Lintott and let him know about that one. Polar ring galaxies are rare, and others have been found this way!
Jessica, wow! By coincidence, you got NGC 3126.
I searched on the coordinates in a database and found it. Try here for more (scrolldown to 3126): http://www.ngcic.org/DSS/dss_n3100.asp
July 11th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
Ah, Lucas, in the warnings section it says “zWarning: NOT_GAL”.
July 11th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
I don’t want to spam (though I would like to know if anybody is getting login messages besides me? Anybody?), but this one (edge-on spiral, lots of dust, good color) struck me as noteworthy.
I can apparently only see new messages when I post a new comment. I think that means I should go to bed.
July 11th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
Jessica: No, could it be your security settings?
July 11th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
So I can’t name it George then?
*sigh* I was planning to hug it and squeeze it and pet it and stroke it and, etc.
July 11th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
I suppose it could be the security settings: I’ll deal with it in the morning. This whole George business has bummed me out.
July 11th, 2007 at 11:05 pm
I think that’s the same galaxy you had before, but the edge of it.
Sorry, but it was discovered in the 1600s I think. But you can call it George if you want.
July 11th, 2007 at 11:40 pm
Just a note to thank everyone for their help; yesterday was quite a day. At this rate I think we might need a bigger zoo…
I wanted to respond to the poster who had a problem with logging in - we need to be able to match classifications to individual users. Feel free to invent name, email address or anything else as all we care about is matching an account to your clicks on our site. We did try to make as much of the site as possible open to those not logged in too.
July 11th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
Oh, and our mail server died. We haven’t lost anything, but Jessica - I’m blaming you.
July 11th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
Phil: are elipticals always yellow?
Sometimes I see a bluish smudge but I can’t make out any spiral.
July 11th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
As I classify them, I think I’m having to fight a form of pareidolla in which I initially see a spiral sometimes when there isn’t one. Perhaps I’m picking up on subtle clues to actual spirals and then talking myself out of it, but I don’t think so, given that it especially seems to happen when there is a spikey “fuzziness” around the outside (which I initially think are the ends of arms).
This is even more true when it comes to wanting to classify two apparently close galaxies as a merger. About 15 galaxies in, I saw one I almost misclassified as a merger, but ended up concluding that there was no evidence of any interaction between the two. Only about 5 galaxies or so later, I did conclude I had found a merger, but I’m not sure. I made this determination based on the intersection of the “fuzz” around the two small galaxies appearing to be somewhat thicker and extending further than what I would expect if they were completely distinct, but I guess it could be some kind of illusion or artifact.
I wouldn’t be surprized if the percentage of spirals and mergers that get classified will be higher than actual.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:02 am
I’m wondering if the preliminary reports of a preference for handedness in spirals (under “The Science”) might be more representative of participants’ preference for _determining_ handedness.
Every so often I run across a beautiful barred spiral or something and I get a little emotional!
July 12th, 2007 at 12:14 am
Wow, I shouldn’t have looked into this so late - it is addictive! I agree with Shane; the tutorial was pretty easy and I must have gotten at least eight right on the test (they don’t tell you how many, just if you passed), but some of the images are tricky. I’ve lost count of how many I’ve looked at, but it helps to go back to the tutorial once in a while. Cool site.
That’s cool…I haven’t gotten one like that.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:18 am
Sometimes in quality control processes, they have “borderline samples.†For the ones that are barely more than a smudge, it might be nice to have a few “rules of thumb†and perhaps some more borderline samples to refer to. I don’t have trouble judging the easy-to-distinguish examples, but when it is just a little smudge, I find it hard.
I realize that this is what the tutorial is for, but maybe one more section containing nothing but the most indistinct blobs would help.
July 12th, 2007 at 1:55 am
Can the BA perhaps create a followup post explaining some spectra from the site?
July 12th, 2007 at 2:32 am
I mentioned this on the Baut forum yesterday, so I can claim ToSeeked here.
Have not been able to do any yet
(This is my forth attempt to post here as everytime I post submit it is as if I never posted at all and it does not even say my post is awaiting moderation)
July 12th, 2007 at 2:33 am
An interesting addition to this post might be information on why it is important to classify spiral galaxies as being either clockwise or anti-clockwise. Isn’t a “clockwise” galaxy actually “anti-clockwise” when viewed from the other side?
July 12th, 2007 at 2:53 am
This is a related story, sort of
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6292024.stm
…and a system test, re me posting any links
July 12th, 2007 at 2:54 am
So a link to a thread on the BAUT forum will not be allowed to post here, but a link to an external site is?
July 12th, 2007 at 4:44 am
> Can the BA perhaps create a followup post explaining some spectra from the site?
I second that request!
July 12th, 2007 at 4:53 am
Great - another addiction. I had to make a deal with myself here, being a librarian at work: categorize a book, then categorize a galaxy
July 12th, 2007 at 5:44 am
What, no sex tractor jokes? Very cool idea (I mean the zoo concept, not the sex tractor) - I’ll have to check it out tonight.
July 12th, 2007 at 6:40 am
Like a few others, I’m returned to the login page, for each image of the trial. In fact I’ve only reached about the 6th image of the trial before my session fails. I’ve tried unblocking pop-ups, which seems to help a bit - but I still want to get into the main analysis. Any other suggestions please !
July 12th, 2007 at 7:06 am
Oh, yes, Phil, I’d like to see an explanation of the espectra, too…
For example, do we have to qualify small, round objects with similar to blacbody spectrum as stars/don’t know?
July 12th, 2007 at 8:03 am
Now I really have to get my ‘net connection sorted!
This stuff is groovy. Just curious about RBH’s jet-tail one, would that be caused by a black hole or just an arm flying off because of the collision?
July 12th, 2007 at 8:07 am
It just trips me out how I’m just sitting here clicking past all these stars, making quick qualitative judgments about entire *galaxies*. Ten million stars, *click*. A hundred million stars, *click*.
I wonder how many aliens, at some point in history, have popped up a picture of the Milky Way in their browser as part of their own survey, and thought, meh, just another spiral galaxy… *click*
July 12th, 2007 at 8:10 am
Absolutely amazing! Now I’m completely absorbed at work, as opposed to being completely bored
July 12th, 2007 at 8:39 am
It’s a pleasant change to see a non-political thread get so many comments.
July 12th, 2007 at 8:41 am
For the people being repeatedly logged out: There are TWO causes, off the top of my head. Problem and solutions both, enjoy:
1.) Disabled cookies. Basically, the site is making you login each time, because it cannot access the login cookie to confirm whom you are. Enable cookies in your browser settings.
2.) Dual+ connections with seperate IPs. Let’s say you’re at work, and on a T1. It also has a DSL backup, which is on and accepting traffic. You access the site via an IP the site sees as coming from the T1, then suddenly you’re requesting data under your login from the DSL and the other IP. The site sees data “pretending” to be you coming from a different IP address, and basically kicks you out. To resolve, remove yourself from the second data pipe. Contact your IT folks on this one.
July 12th, 2007 at 9:16 am
RBH, those are the Mice Galaxies! Recognized them right away. Hubble has an awesome image of them.
July 12th, 2007 at 9:24 am
Maybe they’re throwing those in as well as part of a control.
July 12th, 2007 at 9:47 am
Woo! Here’s a wierd one!
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587739609158058156
Space shroom?
July 12th, 2007 at 9:57 am
This one is nice, too:
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587733411531522132
July 12th, 2007 at 10:01 am
So I can’t name it George then?
Hi Jessica, my International Galaxy Registry will sell you the right to name it George for a mere $29.99, and it comes with a certificate and everything.
-Andy
July 12th, 2007 at 10:11 am
I’d like to purchase a SExtractor.
July 12th, 2007 at 10:18 am
DarkSapiens, that looks like a star superimposed on a background galaxy, but it’s hard to tell without a spectrum.
Mister Earl, I wonder– that galaxy is a barred spiral, and the arms generally come off the ends of bars in that situation. In that one, they wrap all the way around.
But the spectrum is interesting: it has a whopping huge hydrogen emission line at 6800 Angstroms — that’s the redshifted H-alpha line usually at 6563 Angstroms. Given how bright the nucleus is, and the fact that the line looks a bit broad (not really narrow) that may be an active galaxy. I put the coordinates (RA and Dec) into SIMBAD (http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-fcoo) and it identified it as UGC 10342 — confirmed via the redshift, too. Here’s an image I found: http://www.skyfactory.org/deepskycatalogue/UGC10342.html
July 12th, 2007 at 10:25 am
Well… Mister Earl’s one (not mine :P) seems like a superimpose of an eliptic galaxy and a weird structure above for me, but I don’t know what the above thing could be. Doesn’t seem to look like there’s a star there…
July 12th, 2007 at 10:53 am
This is cool. Hope I have some time to play with it.
Just a note about the images. I noticed a couple of people asking questions about colors that they didn’t quite understand. The tri-color images you are looking at use the g-r-i filters. So the green filter is the blue channel, the red filter is the green channel, and the i filter is used for the r channel. The SDSS uses the ugriz filter system and they chose the middle three filters for the tri color images.
Rob
July 12th, 2007 at 11:20 am
CURSE you Galaxy Zoo! Curse you and all your offspring for being so fiendishly addictive! If there’s ever been a guaranteed way to make time accelerate to 10x its usual rate, this is it; you go on for “just a few minutes”, to see “just a few more galaxies” and when you look up from the screen an hour has gone by! The problem is whatever the galaxy on the screen looks like, a little voice inside your head tells you “The next one will be even better… look even prettier…” so on you click, again and again, and even if a big spiral appears that voice whispers “Ah, but the NEXT one will be GORGEOUS…!!”
Some are very vague tho… there should be a few new buttons, with options like “Beats me, looks like someone trod on a cockroach” or “Did someone sneeze on my screen while I was in the loo?”…
An amazing, amazing thing… Was inspired to write this if anyone wants a read:
http://journals.aol.com/stuartatk/TheVerse/entries/2007/07/12/galaxy-zoo/778
July 12th, 2007 at 11:23 am
Andy:
I appreciate the offer, but if I can’t make everybody else call it George as well, then there’s no point.
As for the login issues:
I’m not getting kicked all the way back to an opening screen; I just have a little pop-up window appear when a new picture loads that says,
Being a law-abiding kind of person, I then click “Login” at the top right and get a new screen with “Hi [jessica]” in the top left corner, and the option to Logout in the top right. So I’m already logged in, but I’m still being exhorted to log in with each new picture.
July 12th, 2007 at 11:29 am
Jessica, are you using AOL? I had the same problem - AOL hates cookies and Javascript, I’ve been told - so I now just use IE to access the site and everything’s fine. Do that you should have no problem.
July 12th, 2007 at 11:33 am
[meekly] Yes.
Just so everybody’s aware, I do feel ashamed about it and everything.
I’ll try that and get back to you in a few hours (have to leave right now).
July 12th, 2007 at 11:54 am
Luke Schoen said:
> An interesting addition to this post might be information on why it is important to classify spiral galaxies as being either clockwise or anti-clockwise. Isn’t a “clockwise†galaxy actually “anti-clockwise†when viewed from the other side?
Valid question. My understanding is that the expectation is that there will not be a handedness preference, that the percentages will be approx 50/50. If a handedness preference is discovered, this will give us something new to ponder.
July 12th, 2007 at 11:55 am
I know some people who worked on creating this site. They just sent out an email to a group I belong to at 2:28am this morning. As of this morning, the statistics were…
278000 galaxies with one or more classifications (79000 with 2 or more)
15000 registered users
3000 emails
6.2 million web hits
And this is on the first day!
Rob
July 12th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Hi guys,
Thanks for your awesome contributions!
You’re making Galaxy Zoo a bigger success than we ever dreamed and we’re ironing out all the quirks as you tell us about them.
Happy galaxy hunting!
Kevin
July 12th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
Hrm… take a look at 588023670238806175. Interestingly, there’s a massive tidal tail on this galaxy. MASSIVE. But there’s nothing there! Dark galaxy, perhaps?
July 12th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
That’s interesting. I think the main galaxy is to the lower right, and we’re seeing this thing in the plane of the collision!
July 12th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
I thought that maybe the “Target” of the galaxy we’re seeing might be behind it. Is there any way to tell from the spectral diagram?
July 12th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Waitasecond… if this is a merger in progress, or if it came close enough to heat up clouds of atomic hydrogen, wouldn’t heated hydrogen stand out on the spectrograph? Don’t know of the top of my head.
July 12th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Hi All
Take a look at this one , i call it the doorknob , weirdly mettalic object that seemingly has a very distinct geometric shape (like a doorknob), very ungalaxy like!!!
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587729652354187740
This must be the first time that the SDSS is getting hit by newcomers.
I had played around the SDSS site previously but did not really appreciate the use.
This is a fun way to contribute to science.
Happy Zoo-ing
July 12th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Wow! 14 out of 15 in the preliminary test! I guess I’m not that bad at it
July 12th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
NICE! Hot merger pic. GalID: 587722983365083287. Linky: http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587722983365083287
Objects are small compared to the rest of the shot, but if you highlight the picture, you can see a tidal tail that you could not before.
July 12th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
Hi all,
We’re hoping to get a forum up and running very soon so you guys can properly share interesting images.
When you find a particularly interesting galaxy, it’s a good idea to click on the reference number to get the SDSS interface. There’s a link there called “NED search”. which will tell you about more data about this galaxy (if it exists) and if it’s got other names (NGC, UGC, IC, The Mice, etc.)
Thanks also to Phil for answering questions here!
Cheers,
Kevin
GalaxyZoo Team
July 12th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Lightning strikes twice. This ‘un here’s a beeeut! GalID: 587729408079429773, Link http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587729408079429773.
Most definitely a collision in progress.
July 12th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
Fantastic!
I’m puzzled about this fellow:
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587735695368257647
The flags bit has interpretation (?) cosmic ray, but there’s a proper spectrum, too, and it just looks odd.
July 12th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Kevin - Is there any way you guys could put up a scale on the top of the image to show how big the galaxy is, I’ve always wondered when looking at galaxy images how they relate to ours in size.
July 12th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Hi John,
If you tick the “crosshairs” box, you get the scale in arcsecond/minutes on the image.
Cheers,
Kevin
GalaxyZoo Team
July 12th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
I got 15 right on the test, which boosted my confidence, but the real data is damn hard sometimes! Am I ruining important research if I get them wrong?
July 12th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
He’s on fire! Another amazing collision
GalID: 587732054855778418
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587732054855778418
July 12th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
A thought (Chris Lintott, since you’ve been reading, maybe you can help?): it would be easier to ID galaxies if I didn’t have to scroll down each time (yes, my monitor is set to lotsofpixels X lotsofpixels, so don’t tell me to change my settings, smartalecks). Maybe if they move the image window and buttons to the top of the screen…
July 12th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
I’m a completely amateur space junkie, and I have been loving this. Sadly, I really know very little about light spectra, and have only a casual grip on how red/blue shifts work. Anyone have a recommendation of some reading that might fill out my knowledge gaps? On some of the blurry spirals, I’m trying to ID the arms based on color, so it would be helpful to know what I’m looking at.
Meanwhile, this is my favorite so far, a really great capture of what looks like the beginnings of a merger, with one arm just starting to get pulled into the arm of another.
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=588010359599923225
July 12th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
This is the first one that’s truly perplexed me. It’s so fuzzy, it’s hard to tell what’s happening. it’s flagged as a possible cosmic ray. Is it a merger? its so fuzzy it’s hard to tell if they are interacting. Just two separate galaxies that happen to be on almost the same plane from our point of view?
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587726033854660683
It looks like it might be possible that the more reddish galaxy is a spiral galaxy in front of the more yellowish, possible ellipical one, and they are far apart.
July 12th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
That’s great! Last night it didn’t tell me the score. Now I’ve been taking the test over and over trying to figure out what I got wrong. I don’t feel confident or right in making guesses over the fuzzy ones if I can’t get every one in the test right. I did get all the tutorials correct…argh, so I’m confused. It’s a wonderful learning tool. A follow-up post would be great.
July 12th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Oh, a fuzzy blue galaxy with indistinguishable arms tripped me up on the test - you have to pay close attention to the colors - I kept calling it an edge-on and getting the rotation wrong. Once I stepped back from it I could better see the “give-away” section. Personally, I’d like a longer test with more fuzzy objects.
July 12th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Stephanie said “I’m a completely amateur space junkie, and I have been loving this. Sadly, I really know very little about light spectra, and have only a casual grip on how red/blue shifts work. Anyone have a recommendation of some reading that might fill out my knowledge gaps? On some of the blurry spirals, I’m trying to ID the arms based on color, so it would be helpful to know what I’m looking at.”
I can’t agree more! I’ve been doing some digging myself, but I haven’t had much luck. If any of you folks over at galaxyzoo.org have any ideas as well that would be great
July 12th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Here’s another good one. 587738197191295244
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587738197191295244
To really appreciate this one, you’ll need to drag through and highlight the graphic itself. It looks like a smaller galaxy was shredded apart. It looks like someone scraped it off of his shoe.
July 12th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Here’s another weird one:
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587741534399430714
Sorta looks like a cobra.
July 12th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
I’m barely even a hobbyist at this, more just someone with a fascination, but this one struck me as rather unusual. It’s a bit hard to make out, but upon zooming in I noticed a coloration mixture I hadn’t seen before and “tendrils” around the edge.
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587731511537172664
Does this look like anything worth getting excited over?
July 12th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Sometimes you really have to go and blow up the picture because it came out to me as just a red box with nothing. Click on the small image on the reference page and you get a big red star. Zoom out on the righthand side and you get a lovely picture filled with tons of stars. It’s HD 68064 - star.
It’s neat how you can just click on the SIMBAD search in the righthand column, then click on ‘identifiers’ and get all this information, much of which I don’t quite understand, but am working on it. This site is slick.
July 12th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
The site should have a little tutorial on analyzing spectra as well. That’d be very useful and interesting! What about a “show advanced information” button?
July 12th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=588007005230858375
Is that a blue star in the foreground? I know it looks like an elliptical in the back, but the blue thing has to be a star of some sort. It reminds me of a LBV with the way the light from it is blue and white…
July 12th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587739304761557053
Better. MUCH better! Blue object is a star right? What kind is it I wonder…
July 12th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
I’m having an unbelievably fun time with this. I’ve probably been doing this for four hours already and I’d love to keep going but since it’s 12:30 AM EDT, it’s probably time for me to crash.
July 12th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
I think I found the dinner plate galaxy. Look! A little cosmic steak slipped off. http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/chart/chart.asp?ra=229.03196635&dec=19.4328141
July 12th, 2007 at 11:04 pm
Is this - http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/chart/chart.asp?ra=251.94660161&dec=38.4357694 - an anti-clockwise spiral in front of an eliptical or does the spiral actually contain an eliptical? Are we seeing a mixed merging occurring?
July 13th, 2007 at 12:37 am
I found this in NEDS but I don’t know how to interpret the data. Is it a galaxy or a nebula?
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/chart/chart.asp?ra=159.72840137&dec=12.49909316
July 13th, 2007 at 2:27 am
This is very cool. Can anyone steer me towards a quick tutorial on how to read the spectral graphs?
And here’s a weird one I found…
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587726032764600379
July 13th, 2007 at 3:54 am
[…] Bad Astronomy Blog » Discover new galaxies! […]
July 13th, 2007 at 4:11 am
Michael - I think, judging from the distance (z is the redshift if you’re look at the page with all the data) it’s certainly a galaxy. Looks like a small and/or disrupted spiral to me.
Whoever asked about the scrolling - you’re not waiting for it to readjust, but we’re rewriting this.
Thanks for all the hard work…
July 13th, 2007 at 4:20 am
I feel bad, though. When I get a pixel blob that’s almost impossible to decipher, I’m afraid I’m dooming some block of data to forever being mislabeled…
July 13th, 2007 at 8:03 am
[…] SpiegelOnline und Bad Astronomy Blog) Von den Frontlinien der Wissenschaft am Rande der bekannten Welt - Heimaturlaub […]
July 13th, 2007 at 8:12 am
This one’s lovely: 587739295086739554 , reminds me a bit of the Sombrero galaxy…I haven’t got a clue which sort of spiral it is though. Would it be entirely unreasonable to request a button to classify as ’spiral, unkown direction’ do you think?
July 13th, 2007 at 10:11 am
Is this a nebula? Not quite sure.
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587729386076373076
July 13th, 2007 at 10:41 am
AHF Says:
“feel bad, though. When I get a pixel blob that’s almost impossible to decipher, I’m afraid I’m dooming some block of data to forever being mislabeled…”
I just click the star/don’t know button when this happens, better to make a positive ID than struggling to make out blobs. there should be a spiral galaxy choice, independent of clockwise, anti-clockwise or edge on.
July 13th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Well, I sorta defaulted on that most of the time, but I felt as though the don’t know wasn’t explained as being something specifically for whatever else you can’t identify. The examples they used were usually for the streaks, satellites or stars. But I’ll just stick with your idea until they tell me otherwise, or kick me off the team
July 13th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
I was up until 3:30 AM doing it… been doing it since I woke up a 5:00 PM too. Fun stuff.
July 13th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/chart/chart.asp?ra=215.27251057&dec=22.31972554
What the heck is that? It looks like a spiral galaxy that broke up.
July 13th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Any ideas what’s this?
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587726102557163655
looks like a merger to me, but the blue stuff next to it?
July 13th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
And this one I call director’s cut!
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587742062158872625
Enough. They must bring up the forums or we’re doomed.
July 13th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
[…] Bad Astronomy Blog » Discover new galaxies! (tags: Astronomy Crowd_Sourcing Galaxies) […]
July 13th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/chart/chart.asp?ra=213.44051502&dec=8.21870234
Wow, check out that incredible merger!
July 13th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/chart/chart.asp?ra=193.84142664&dec=58.34410822
what a beauty
July 13th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/chart/chart.asp?ra=116.72107173&dec=39.02195093
Another spectacular merger, this time between a spiral and elliptical galaxy.
July 14th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
What a cool and addictive site.
I just got this submitted as an article on Slashdot (my first!), so hopefully there will be a lot of extra geek brain power thrown at this project for a while.
Thanks, BA, for bringing astronomy within reach of the common people.
July 15th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Melusine, I was told that I got 13 out of 15 right on the qualifying test (not which ones, though).
July 15th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
Yeah, when I took it after Phil posted this, it just said something like you got AT LEAST 8 right, you passed! Then I saw that people later got scores, so I took it again in the morning and it gave me, I think, 12 out of 15. Took it again and again until I got them all right. Blue blobby galaxies are the worst! It helps when you haven’t been on the computer for hours prior and your eyes are fresh. It’s so addictive. I just hope all this public involvement helps them. I especially like trying to figure out the rotations…and well, looking at astrophotos.
July 15th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
And now for something completely different… Looks like this poor galaxy had an altercation a long, long, time ago and lost. Very, very, badly.
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587733398116434200
What would happen to our solar system if that was our galaxy and we were in the half that was missing? How long would it take for us non-astronomers to know anything was amiss? Dr. BA?
July 16th, 2007 at 12:24 am
What a pretty blue spiral whipping around like a hurricane (So to speak.) It’s NGC 6001. Looks better when you click on the small picture.
Michael Preiss, I had few of those tonight - sort of twisted, spread out galaxies with no discernible center. I wish I had an expert sitting next to me - I have too many questions!
Must. Stop. Now.
July 16th, 2007 at 1:51 am
Melusine says:
@ July 16th, 2007 at 12:24 am
What a pretty blue spiral whipping around like a hurricane (So to speak. It’s NGC 6001. Looks better when you click on the small picture.
That’s gorgeous! Reminds me of July 4th pinwheel fireworks.
July 16th, 2007 at 4:09 am
hmz like to know what kinda star this is, its verry bright and PINK?!?!
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587742590405509321
July 16th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Just found a great flickr site for sharing finds.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/galaxyzoo
July 16th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
Well hi, have been reading here a lot since I first found this site and this is my first post.
Was doing my weekly read though and found this and I love it! But the last thing I need is something else thats addictive, all those pretty galaxies…Thanks for the link BA!
July 16th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
This is tons of fun. Beats the stuffing out of sudoku and solitare.
July 16th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
Found one with a ring around it! This is so cool.
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=588009365862547525
July 16th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
Their website makes the claim that human brains are “better than a computer can ever be” at pattern recognition. I’d be very careful saying something like that.
July 16th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
Beware the giant space amoeba!!
http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/chart/chart.asp?ra=166.11002905&dec=4.83432659
A merger… but an odd one. Look at the gap near the bulge.
Dr Eric
July 17th, 2007 at 7:56 am
Eric Aitala says:
@ July 16th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
“Beware the giant space amoeba!!”
Looks like a snake with a huge alligator head. It also looks like a pleisiosaur sans fins and teeth. How’s that for pattern recognition?
July 22nd, 2007 at 2:16 am
This is exactly what I expected to find out after reading the title Discover new galaxies!. Thanks for informative article
July 23rd, 2007 at 2:41 pm
[…] you’re addicted to Galaxy Zoo, and while identifying galaxies hither and yon you found some killer cool galaxy image. Did you […]
July 24th, 2007 at 9:01 am
[…] I’ve been dying to use this image and it’s perfect for this!) So you’re addicted to Galaxy Zoo, and while identifying galaxies hither and yon you found some killer cool galaxy image. Did you […]
July 24th, 2007 at 9:06 am
[…] I’ve been dying to use this image and it’s perfect for this!) So you’re addicted to Galaxy Zoo, and while identifying galaxies hither and yon you found some killer cool galaxy image. Did you […]
July 27th, 2007 at 10:00 pm
“delphi_oteon 16 Jul 2007 at 9:36 pm
Their website makes the claim that human brains are “better than a computer can ever be†at pattern recognition. I’d be very careful saying something like that.”
I think that
maybe they need more computers as many as human…:)
October 15th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
RBH Says:
(on 11 Jul 2007 at 10:33 pm)
Gack. URL: http://tinyurl.com/36sf24
Those galaxies are called “The Mice” or NGC 4676.