Researchers publish enormous catalog of more than 300,000 nearby galaxies

More than 83,000 volunteer citizen scientists participated in the crowdsourcing project

2013-09-24

(Press-News.org) More than 83,000 volunteer citizen scientists. Over 16 million galaxy classifications. Information on more than 300,000 galaxies. This is what you get when you ask the public for help in learning more about our universe.

The project, named Galaxy Zoo 2, is the second phase of a crowdsourcing effort to categorize galaxies in our universe. Researchers say computers are good at automatically measuring properties such as size and color of galaxies, but more challenging characteristics, such as shape and structure, can currently only be determined by the human eye.

An international group of researchers, led by the University of Minnesota, has just produced a catalog of this new galaxy data. This catalog is 10 times larger than any previous catalog of its kind. It is available online at data.galaxyzoo.org, and a paper describing the project and data was published today in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

View examples of images categorized by citizen scientists at http://z.umn.edu/galaxyimages.

"This catalog is the first time we've been able to gather this much information about a population of galaxies," said Kyle Willett, a physics and astronomy postdoctoral researcher in the University of Minnesota's College of Science and Engineering and the paper's lead author. "People all over the world are beginning to examine the data to gain a more detailed understanding of galaxy types."

Between Feb. 2009 and April 2010, more than 83,000 Galaxy Zoo 2 volunteers from around the world looked at images online gathered from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. They answered questions about the galaxy, including whether it had spirals, the number of spiral arms present, or if it had galactic bars, which are long extended features that represent a concentration of stars. Each image was classified an average of 40-45 times to ensure accuracy. More than 16 million classifications of more than 300,000 galaxies were gathered representing about 57 million computer clicks.

When volunteers were asked why they got involved in the project, the most common answer was because they enjoyed contributing to science. Researchers estimate that the effort of the volunteers on this project represents about 30 years of full-time work by one researcher.

"With today's high-powered telescopes, we are gathering so many new images that astronomers just can't keep up with detailed classifications," said Lucy Fortson, a professor of physics and astronomy in the University of Minnesota's College of Science and Engineering and one of the co-authors of the research paper. "We could never have produced a data catalog like this without crowdsourcing help from the public."

Fortson said Galaxy Zoo 2 is similar to a census of the galaxies. With this new catalog, researchers now have a snapshot of the different types of galaxies as they are today. The next catalog will tell us about galaxies in the distant past. The catalogs together will let us understand how our universe is changing.

To help create the next catalog, volunteer citizen scientists continue to be needed for the project. To participate, visit http://www.galaxyzoo.org. No special skills are needed, and volunteers can start classifying galaxies and helping the scientists within minutes of going to the website.

INFORMATION:

In addition to Fortson and Willett, other authors of the research paper include Chris Lintott, Oxford Astrophysics and Adler Planetarium; Steven Bamford, University of Nottingham; Karen Masters, Robert Nichol and Daniel Thomas, University of Portsmouth and South East Physics Network; Brooke Simmons and Robert Simpson, Oxford Astrophysics; Kevin Casteels, University of Barcelona; Edward Edmondson and Thomas Melvin, University of Portsmouth; Sugata Kaviraj, Oxford Astrophysics and University of Hertfordshire; William Keel, University of Alabama; M. Jordan Raddick, Johns Hopkins University; Kevin Schawinski, ETH Zurich; Ramin Skibba, University of California, San Diego; and Arfon Smith, Adler Planetarium.

The research was funded primarily by the National Science Foundation and the Leverhulme Trust. Galaxy Zoo is one of the many online citizen science projects made available by the Zooniverse.org team.

To read the full research paper entitled "Galaxy Zoo 2: detailed morphological classifications for 304,122 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey," visit the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society website.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Alzheimer's progression tracked prior to dementia

2013-09-24

For years, scientists have attempted to understand how Alzheimer's disease harms the brain before memory loss and dementia are clinically detectable. Most researchers think this preclinical stage, which can last a decade or more before symptoms appear, is the critical phase when the disease might be controlled or stopped, possibly preventing the failure of memory and thinking abilities in the first place. Important progress in this effort is reported in October in Lancet Neurology. Scientists at the Charles F. and Joanne Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Center at Washington ...

Cross-ethnic friendships in urban middle schools make youths feel less vulnerable, safer

2013-09-24

Friendships matter throughout life, and in early adolescence they provide validation and emotional support. Now a new study has found that friendships across ethnic groups in urban middle schools help protect youths from feeling vulnerable, making them feel less lonely and at the same time safer. As the population of children in the United States grows increasingly diverse, this study has implications for how educators oversee student interactions. The study, by researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, ...

Responsive interactions key to toddlers' ability to learn language

2013-09-24

Young children readily learn words from their parents, grandparents, and child care providers in live conversations, but learning from video has proven more difficult. A new study questioned why and found that it's the responsiveness of the interactions that's key: When we respond to children in timely and meaningful ways, they learn—even when that response comes from a screen. The study, by researchers at the University of Washington, Temple University, and the University of Delaware, appears in the journal Child Development. Three dozen 2-year-olds were randomly assigned ...

Playing with blocks may help children's spatial and math thinking

2013-09-24

Playing with blocks may help preschoolers develop the kinds of skills that support later learning in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), according to a new study by researchers at the University of Delaware and Temple University. And for low-income preschoolers, who lag in spatial skills, such play may be especially important. The study is published in the journal Child Development. More than a hundred 3-year-olds of various socioeconomic levels took part in the study. Children who were better at copying block structures were also better at early math, ...

Recommendations guide physicians in treatment of systemic juvenile arthritis

2013-09-24

In the U.S., there are nearly 300,000 children with juvenile arthritis and other rheumatic illnesses according to estimates from the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). For pediatric patients with systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), effective treatment for this disabling disease is imperative. New treatment recommendations that guide physicians caring for children with systemic JIA are now published in the ACR journals, Arthritis & Rheumatism and Arthritis Care & Research. Systemic JIA is defined by the International League of Associations for Rheumatology ...

Warning of potential side effects of a product can increase its sales

2013-09-24

Drug ads often warn of serious side effects, from nausea and bleeding to blindness, even death. New research suggests that, rather than scaring consumers away, these warnings can improve consumers' opinions and increase product sales when there is a delay between seeing the ad and deciding to buy or consume the product. "Messages that warn consumers about potentially harmful side effects — presumably with the intent to nudge them to act more cautiously — can ironically backfire," says psychological scientist Ziv Carmon of INSEAD in Singapore. Working with Yael Steinhart ...

Patient heal thyself: Solution to treatment for chronic infections could lie in patient's blood

2013-09-23

1. A recent discovery by scientists at A*STAR's Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS), in close collaboration with researchers at the Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), provides hope for a new personalised treatment strategy that could use a patient's own blood to treat the infection. This could help treat millions of people living with chronic infections such as HIV, Hepatitis B or Hepatitis C. These findings were published in the August 2013 issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2. Patients suffering from chronic infections often have to undergo ...

Smile!

2013-09-23

A brighter, better, longer-lasting dental implant may soon be on its way to your dentist's office. Dental implants are posts, usually made of titanium, that are surgically placed into the jawbone and topped with artificial teeth. More than dentures or bridges, implants mimic the look and feel of natural teeth. While most dental implants are successful, a small percentage fail and either fall out or must be removed. A scientist at Michigan Technological University wants to lower that rate to zero using nanotechnology. "Dental implants can greatly improve the lives of ...

Propofol discovery may help lead to development of new anesthetics

2013-09-23

New research on the most commonly used anaesthetic drug could help to unravel a long-standing mystery about how it induces a pain-free, sleep-like state. General anaesthetics are administered to tens of millions of people every year in hospitals, where they are used to sedate patients undergoing surgery. Despite this, scientists have yet to understand how the drug interacts with its targets in brain cells to achieve this effect. Following years of research on propofol, which has become the most commonly used anaesthetic since it was introduced in the 1980s, researchers ...

Immune system fights infection with performance enhancement

2013-09-23

Researchers in Melbourne, Australia, have found that even our immune system is subject to performance enhancement, with our bodies giving immune cells the boost they need to ensure the best team is selected to fight infections. The discovery could help in developing new treatments for blood diseases such as leukaemia and autoimmune diseases in which the body attacks its own tissues, such as in diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis. It could also be used to enhance immune response to HIV and other chronic infections. The finding, by researchers at the Walter and Eliza Hall ...

Pollen counts can be predicted by machine learning models using meteorological data with more than 80% accuracy even a week ahead, for both grass and birch tree pollen, which could be key in effective

Rewriting our understanding of early hominin dispersal to Eurasia

Rising simultaneous wildfire risk compromises international firefighting efforts

Honey bee "dance floors" can be accurately located with a new method, mapping where in the hive forager bees perform waggle dances to signal the location of pollen and nectar for their nestmates

Researchers publish enormous catalog of more than 300,000 nearby galaxies

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: