Help find Galaxies! The Andromeda Project

I was reading the news, and came across this article from KSL Link to Article

You can help Astronomers search for cluster stars and galaxies!

The Hubble Space Telescope began collecting images in 2010. There are about 3 billion pixels of images and that’s where volunteers are needed. “We are hoping to recruit volunteers to look through them and identify groups of stars that we call 'star clusters,'" said Anil Seth, an organizer of the Andromeda Project and an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Utah.

Conducting a big project like this on the web is a natural, Seth said. "People do all sorts of things online. They look at Facebook, look at stupid videos on YouTube. So this is something that, maybe, rather than doing that, you can help us do science.”

I just spent the last hour looking at amazing photos of stars and galaxies. Finally, a place I can spend my hours unable to sleep, actually helping science. And it's fascinating to boot! I love how he comments on the "stupid YouTube videos" haha Sorry, ATS...but this might take away some of my time from you each night.

Here is the link to the website.

Andromeda Project

reply to post by CeeRZ

The Andromeda galaxy is the closest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way. For a hundred years, Andromeda (also known by its Messier Catalog identifier, M31) has played an important role in shaping our view of the Universe. In the early 1920's, Edwin Hubble's observations of Andromeda confirmed for the first time that galaxies lie outside of the Milky Way, and that Andromeda must contain billions of stars. Today, Andromeda is a template for understanding how spiral galaxies form and evolve.

The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT) survey (public webpage here) opens a new window on Andromeda. This ongoing, four-year Hubble Space Telescope (HST) project will map one-third of Andomeda's spiral disk at six wavelengths ranging from the near-infrared to the ultraviolet (Dalcanton +2012). The HST images have exquisite resolution, allowing PHAT to reveal more than 100 million stars by the time the survey is complete. This beautiful data set is the heart of the Andromeda Project.

About Us page

Good call!

Looks like a fascinating way to kill time in the service of armchair JT Kirkism and Science

I think the reason I'm so fascinated with it is I want to be an astronomer.... But I absolutely suck at math. So this is one way I can be part of a subject I absolutely love. And it's smart they are suggesting it for schools and children too. It's a great project to help teach and learn about our universe.

reply to post by CeeRZ
Yeah I agree. I noticed it requires a log-in account and that made me wonder if there'd be any chance of having a new galaxy or similar object named after the discoverer - great incentive right there!

reply to post by CeeRZ


It's interesting the search is taking place in another galaxy that will become our future home:

www.andromedaproject.org...

Help researchers understand the awesomeness of the Andromeda galaxy, because one day we'll be in it...

Not our future home exactly, but our descendants may have some of these star clusters for neighbors. So think how proud they would be if they could say "my great-great-great.....grandpa (grandma) was the first one to spot that star cluster" but I don't think it works that way...they want 20 people to see each image so if 18 of 20 spot it, then I suppose all 18 would get credit.

It asked me if I wanted to sign up to get credit on about my 3rd image. I might do that but I haven't yet. It does seem like a better pastime than watching stupid videos, but it's not for everybody, it takes more concentration for one thing.

This is actually part of the Zooniverse citizen science project. You can also participate in mapping moon craters, identifying different types of galaxies, and looking for exo-solar planets.

This is really interesting. Thank you so much for sharing. Will definitely be looking into it.

Signing up only requires a username and email. They say you get credit though.... So I wonder what credit. I doubt they will come looking for the thousands of people who will be helping, but it would be cool

Originally posted by CeeRZ
Signing up only requires a username and email. They say you get credit though.... So I wonder what credit.

The article sort of explains what the credit is for, by inference:

But what if the volunteers are bad at identifying clusters? The project creators have come with a way to rank individuals and see how well they do with the task.

On some other internet projects I've worked on I've seen some people have either bad eyesight or poor cognitive abilities, or perhaps both. But I wonder if they show you how well you rank and if you're one of the "good" ones or one of the "bad" ones? If someone is really bad at it, let them know so they can stop wasting their time!

Anil Seth is one of my professors. He's a really cool guy, works on this project and finding low mass black holes (way cool).

The Andromeda project is really amazing and if you want to participate you can see things that literally no one has ever seen before. In the ultra high resolution shots of andromeda you can see individual stars and identify star clusters. In other parts of zooniverse you can identify planets around other stars or categorize galaxies ~400 megaparsecs away. Anyone can make a real contribution to our scientific knowledge here so get to work and discover something! It's fun too lol.

reply to post by framedragged


I'm definitely addicted to it. Haha. I showed my 11 year old step-son, and he loved it! He even wants to show his teachers because they are learning about the stars right now. And on the main website, you can help interpret Ancient Greek scrolls. Which is another subject they are about to start. Great learning tools for the classroom!

I love Zooniverse! Its a great example of how awesome the internet can be.