Electronic,
Galaxy Zoo opens
(Jul 10, 2007)
Abstract
Press Galaxy Zoo opens Press Release: 10 July 2007
Everyone can visit the ‘Galaxy Zoo’ Caroline
ZunckelAstronomers are inviting members of the public
to help them make major new discoveries by taking part
in a census of one million galaxies. Visitors to
www.galaxyzoo.org will get to see stunning images of
galaxies, most of which have never been viewed by human
eyes before. By sorting these images into “spiral
galaxies” (like our own Milky Way) or “elliptical
galaxies”, visitors will help astronomers to
understand the structure of the universe. The new
digital images were taken using the robotic Sloan
Digital Sky Survey telescope in New Mexico. ‘It’s
not just for fun’ said Kevin Schawinski of
Astrophysics at Oxford University where the data will
be analysed. ‘The human brain is actually better than
a computer at pattern recognition tasks like this.
Whether you spend five minutes, fifteen minutes or five
hours using the site your contribution will be
invaluable.’ Visitors will be able to print out
posters of the galaxies they have explored and even
compete to see who’s the best virtual astronomer.
M87The galaxyzoo.org team were inspired by projects
such as Stardust@home, in which NASA invited the public
to sort through dust grains obtained by a mission to
Comet Wild-2. Oxford’s Dr Chris Lintott, co-presenter
of the BBC’s Sky at Night programme and galaxyzoo.org
team member, commented: ‘What the Stardust team
achieved was incredible, but our galaxies are much more
interesting to look at than their dust grains. We hope
that participants in Galaxy Zoo will not only
contribute to science, but have a lot of fun along the
way.’ Images for the project are taken from the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey, which uses a 142-megapixel digital
camera to create the largest digital map of the
universe. ‘It is great that digital archives we have
built for science are now being used by the public to
look at the universe’ says Professor Bob Nichol from
the University of Portsmouth. ‘It will be great to
have all the galaxies classified; it’s as fundamental
as knowing if a human is male or female.’ The
astronomers hope that the survey will shed light on how
different kinds of galaxies are distributed across the
sky. The results might even reveal that there is
something fundamentally wrong with existing models of
the universe. Sir Patrick Moore, an enthusiastic
supporter of the project, said: ‘Non-professionals
have always been deeply involved in studying the sky
and they now have yet another opportunity to make
themselves really useful. Moreover, their help is now
of immense value so do join up – as I am doing
myself!’ M101For more information visit
www.galaxyzoo.org or contact; the University of Oxford
Press Office on +44 (0)1865 283877 or email:
press.office@admin.ox.ac.uk Notes to editors • The
Galaxy Zoo team includes scientists from the University
of Oxford, the University of Portsmouth and Johns
Hopkins University (USA), and Fingerprint Digital Media
of Belfast. • Images related to the project can be
downloaded from www.galaxyzoo.org/Press.aspx • For
more on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey visit www.sdss.org
For full details of those involved go to
www.sdss.org/collaboration/credits.html
