An enhanced image of some of the galaxies from AstroQuest” for the ones with multiple galaxies.
An image of AstroQuest galaxy alongside how it looks in the AstroQuest
platform once a citizen scientist has ‘helped’ the computer to identify
what belongs to the main galaxy and what doesn’t. Credit:
ICRAR/AstroQuest
An image of an AstroQuest galaxy alongside how it looks in the
AstroQuest platform once a citizen scientist has helped the computer to
identify what belongs to the main galaxy and what doesn’t. Credit:
ICRAR/AstroQuest
An image of an AstroQuest galaxy alongside how it looks in the
AstroQuest platform once a citizen scientist has helped the computer to
identify what belongs to the main galaxy and what doesn’t. Credit:
ICRAR/AstroQuest
An
image of an AstroQuest galaxy alongside how it looks in the AstroQuest
platform once a citizen scientist has helped the computer to identify
what belongs to the main galaxy and what doesn’t. Credit:
ICRAR/AstroQuest
Scientists are appealing for public help on one of the biggest astronomy projects of the next ten years.
In a new citizen science project launched today (March 22, 2019) — known as AstroQuest— researchers are looking for volunteers to study images of galaxies and figure out which light is coming from which galaxy.
“When you go outside and look up at the night sky, there’s a lot of black with all of the stars dotted around,” said astrophysicist Dr Luke Davies, from the University of Western Australia node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR).
“But
when you look with a really powerful telescope for a long time, you
actually see that there are galaxies and stars everywhere, all over the
sky.
“It’s really, really crowded, and all of these galaxies and stars overlap with each other.”
Dr
Davies helps lead WAVES—or the Wide Area Vista ExtraGalactic Survey—a
million-dollar international project and the biggest spectroscopic
galaxy evolution survey ever undertaken.
He said WAVES needs to accurately measure the light coming from millions of galaxies.
“We use sophisticated computer algorithms to make sense of where the light is coming from in these crowded regions,” Dr Davies said.
“But the computer often gets it wrong. It’s simply no match for the human eye and brain.”
Dr Davies said professional astronomers have previously looked through all the galaxies and fixed the computer’s mistakes.
“But as more and more galaxies are surveyed, there simply aren’t enough people on our team to do it,” he said.
ICRAR
citizen science project officer Lisa Evans said AstroQuest asks
volunteers to take over from professional astronomers and check the
computer’s work.
Where the computer has gotten it wrong, volunteers are asked to fix it.
“There’s never been a citizen science project quite like this before,” Ms Evans said.
“This is the first time we’ve got people actually painting over the galaxies and drawing in where they are.”
Ms Evans has also added game features to AstroQuest, including leaderboards, quests and achievements.
Dr
Davies said knowing the amount of light that comes from a galaxy can
tell us things like how many stars the galaxy currently has, how many
stars it’s forming and how much dust is in it.
He said the team is
ultimately trying to learn more about how galaxies in the early
Universe evolved into the galaxies that we see today.
“If you map
out millions of galaxies and measure all of their properties you can
actually see how galaxies change as the Universe gets older. You can
then explore how things like where a galaxy lives in the Universe and if
it’s crashing into other galaxies affect how it evolves with time,” he
says.
AstroQuest is a chance for anyone who’s interested in astronomy to be involved in one of the biggest scientific projects of the next ten years, Dr Davies said.
“You can essentially be at the
forefront of scientific research and help out a huge million-dollar
international project just by being at your computer and drawing over
pictures of galaxies,” he said.
Register at astroquest.net.au.
More Information
The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) is a joint
venture between Curtin University and The University of Western
Australia with support and funding from the State Government of Western
Australia.
Multimedia
Full resolution images available for download from here.
Contacts
Dr Luke Davies (ICRAR-UWA)
Ph: +61 466 277 672
Email: Luke.Davies@icrar.org
Pete Wheeler (Media Contact, ICRAR)
Ph: +61 423 982 018
Email: Pete.Wheeler@icrar.org
