Galaxy Zoo

The Hill Billy

Interested in astronomy?
Want to help classify 1m galaxies?
Go to Galaxy Zoo & find out more.

Dr Pepper

Well, it looks interesting. I did the tutorial, passed the test and moved on to the analysis section... BUT none of the galaxies are showing up. I just keep getting a 'Timeout Expired...' message where the picture should be. Anyone else having this problem?

I'll try it again later!

Edit: Also a BBC news article about it here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6289474.stm

The Hill Billy

Dr Pepper wrote:

I just keep getting a 'Timeout Expired...' message where the picture should be. Anyone else having this problem?

Me too. The site is still having the finishing touches applied.

The Hill Billy

The site seems more stable today. I had a good bash through it for around 1 hour earlier.

The resolution of some of the shots makes it very difficult to discern between eliptical or slightly edge-on spirals.

Dr Pepper

I just had an thought.. If you were to look at the clockwise spinning galaxies from the other side, they would appear to be spinning anti-clockwise. So, what's all the fuss about direction of spin of galaxies about? (i.e. Scientists are trying to determine why more I know I'm missing something here. I have a hangover!

Mahatma coat

i think it has to do with direction of spin relative to the observer on earth, but yeah still not very clear intheir website, I suppose they dont want to say too much as i would influence the results.

Pretty cool website tho, bit hard to tell if some are close stars or really far away eliptical galaxies

The Hill Billy

Here's what the FAQ says:

Q. Why record the rotation of the galaxy when it depends on your position? A different observer on the other side of the galaxy would observe it rotating the opposite way. And shouldn't they all be random?
A. Yes, they should be, but a recent investigation, involving many fewer galaxies, suggested that the odds of seeing a clockwise or an anticlockwise galaxy changed depending on where you look in the sky. If this is true, it suggests we're missing something about how the Universe is organised on large scales, and so we decided - with your help - to see if the effect is real. We are also interested in the correlation s between neighbouring galaxies, for example whether a close pair of galaxies rotate the same way, as this contains information about the way galaxies form and the large-scale forces acting on them. All observers would agree on such an observation.

Mahatma coat

got one last night of a clock and anti in close proximity, looked likethey were spiralin into each other, must scroll thru the history file, see where it is

http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=587742061057015927

there.

The Hill Billy

A spectacularly strung-out merger.

The Hill Billy

Newsletter Posted 02/08/07

Galaxy Zoo Team wrote:

PROJECT UPDATE

To date, unbelievably, 80,000 of you have viewed and classified more than 10
million
images of galaxies. Our initial target of having each galaxy (there are
a million in our initial sample from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey)
viewed once is more than done, but we still need your help. Our NEW
target is to have each and every galaxy classified by 20 separate
users.

The importance of multiple classifications is that it will enable us to
build an accurate and reliable database, that will meet the high
standards of the scientific community. For the first time, we'll be
able to separate not only spirals from ellipticals, but obvious spirals
from fainter, fuzzier things. No-one has ever been able to do this
before, so we hope that you'll continue to search through our galaxies
and enjoy the ride.

Thanks as well to everyone who has emailed us with an interesting
object, or posted on the forum (see below). We're slowly working
through the list, and the first objects have now been sent off to
telescopes for follow-up work to begin. The ability to follow up on
objects identified by you, our users, is one of the most amazing things
about Galaxy Zoo and we're looking forward to sharing the results.
Hopefully it's also a motivation to look at 'just one more' galaxy when
you're using the site.


MY GALAXIES AND THE FORUM ARE LIVE

The long-awaited Galaxy Zoo forum is now online at
www.galaxyzooforum.org (or just follow the link from the main site).
Please come and join those members sharing their greatest images, or
talking about their experiences in the galaxy zoo.

Many of you have also noticed that the 'My Galaxies' link on the Galaxy
Analysis page is now live, so you can trawl back through the galaxies
you've classified in the last week or so and share the best with your
friends and those on the forum.

That's all for now, but we're working hard on making the most of your
classifications to date, and planning new projects with which you can
explore the Universe further. If you haven't been back to the site for
a while, please come and help us reach our new target of 20 million
classifications. It's only another 100 or so galaxies each!

The Galaxy Zoo team.

Orlee

Im loving galaxyzoo -

passes the time/something interesting to look at/helping out!