Category Archives: Astronomy

Activism, Astronomy, Space participation

Looking in on the Zooniverse citizen science space projects

A scan of of what’s happening with the space related citizen science projects at Zooniverse:

Update May.9.13: Here is a report by Katy Maloney about a recent Zooniverse workshop held n Chicago at the Adler Planetarium :

Astronomy, Space participation

Search for Space Warps in new citizen science project

1 Comment

A new citizen science project from Zooniverse is titled Space Warps.

This project is a gravitational lens discovery engine. Large astronomical surveys can use Space Warps to find gravitational lenses in their data through the collaborative efforts of citizen scientists.

Here is an animation of the gravitational lenses effect:

More information about the project is described here: New Project: Join the Search for ‘Space Warps’ – Zooniverse

Gravitational lenses – or ‘space warps’ – are created when massive galaxies cause light to bend around them such that they act rather like giant lenses in space. By looking through data that has never been seen by human eyes, our new Space Warps project is asking citizen scientists to help discover some of these incredibly rare objects. We need your help to spot these chance-alignments of galaxies in a huge survey of the night sky. To take part visit www.spacewarps.org.

Gravitational lenses help us to answer all kinds of questions about galaxies, including how many very low mass stars such as brown dwarfs – which aren’t bright enough to detect directly in many observations – are lurking in distant galaxies. The Zooniverse has always been about connecting people with the biggest questions and now, with Space Warps, we’re taking our first trip to the early Universe. We’re excited to let people be the first to see some of the rarest astronomical objects of all!

The Space Warps project is a lens discovery engine. Joining the search is easy: when you visit the website you are given examples of what space warps look like and are shown how to mark potential candidates on each image. The first set of images to be inspected in this project is from the CFHT (Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope) legacy survey.

[See above video.]

Computer algorithms have already scanned the images, but there are likely to be many more space warps that the algorithms have missed. We think that only with human help will we find them all. Realistic simulated lenses are dropped into some images to help you learn how to spot them, and reassure you that you’re on the right track. Previous studies have shown that the human brain is better at identifying complex lenses than computers are, and we know at the Zooniverse that members of the public can be at least as good at spotting astronomical objects as experts! We’re going to use the data from citizen scientists to continuously train computers to become better space warp spotters.

This is a really exciting project and you can read more on the Space Warps blog. As with our other projects it can also be found on Twitter (@SpaceWarps), on Facebook and you can discuss any interesting objects you find on Space Warps Talk. We’re really excited about this project and think you’ll be able to make some amazing discoveries through it.

 

 

Astronomy

Night sky highlights for May 2013

NASA’s What’s up for May 2013? describes the night sky for the coming month:

Astronomy

NASA ScienceCasts: Saturn close up

The latest NASA ScienceCast focuses on observations of the Saturn system with telescopes and Cassini images:

Saturn and Earth are lining up for a beautiful view of the ringed planet. Saturn will be at its best and brightest on April 28th.

Astronomy, Contests and Games, Space participation

Winner announced in Alpha Centauri planet naming contest

Nature has this report on the naming of  exoplanets and Pluto’s moons: Moon and planet names spark battle: Company clashes with International Astronomical Union over popular labels for exoplanets – Nature News & Comment

===

Meanwhile, the Uwingu contest to name a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri has a winner:

Uwingu Announces A Name for the Planet Orbiting Alpha Centauri

Space company Uwingu announced the winner of its public engagement contest to solicit and vote on a popular name for the only known planet orbiting the nearest star to the Sun, Alpha Centauri.
Apr. 24, 2013 – BOULDER, Colo. — Space company Uwingu™TM announced the winner of its public engagement contest to solicit and vote on a popular name for the only known planet orbiting the nearest star to the Sun, Alpha Centauri.

The winning name from Uwingu’s competition to select a name for the planet is “Albertus Alauda”. This nomination was entered into Uwingu’s public planet name nomination database last November by Jason Lark, in honor of his late grandfather, Albert Lark. In the citation Lark entered into Uwingu’s database, Lark said, “His name in Latin means Noble or Bright and to praise or extol. I think this is an apt description as my Grandfather was a noble man and bright of character and in this nomination I wish to honour (extol) him.”

12123939-uwingus-efforts-seek-to-better-connect-the-public-to-space-and-astronomy[1]
The second through fifth place name nominations in the competition were Rakhat, Caleo, Amara, and Tiber, with origins in science fiction literature, science, and a man’s love for his fiancée.

Over 1,240 name nominations were received in total. “This really shows that ordinary people like to engage in astronomy and space exploration this new way, and at Uwingu we’re very happy that we could help demonstrate that. We’re also ready to now give people new ways to engage in public sector exoplanet naming” said Uwingu’s CEO Dr. Alan Stern.

Uwingu’s mission is twofold: To help the public better connect to space and the sky, and to create a new kind of grant fund for space researchers and educators using proceeds from our web site. Uwingu’s name means sky in Swahili. Uwingu’s web site can be found at www.uwingu.com.

Uwingu Fund grant dollars from the Alpha Centauri planet naming competition will be used to help space educators and educator projects.

 ####

About Uwingu: Uwingu (which means “sky” in Swahili, and is pronounced “oo-wing-oo”)

was formed by a team of leading astronomers, planetary scientists, former space program executives, and educators. The company includes space historian and author Andrew Chaikin, space educator Dr. Emily CoBabe-Ammann, citizen science leader Dr. Pamela Gay, author and former museum science director Dr. David Grinspoon, planet hunter Dr. Geoff Marcy, planetary scientist and aerospace executive Dr. Teresa Segura, planetary scientist and former NASA science boss Dr. Alan Stern, planetary scientist and CEO of the Planetary Science Institute, Dr. Mark Sykes, former Executive Director of the Planetary Society Dr. Louis Friedman, and space artists Jon Lomberg and Dan Durda. In September, Uwingu successfully concluded one of the 25 largest Indiegogo crowd-funding campaigns ever to launch an ongoing series of public engagement projects. Visit Uwingu’s web site at www.uwingu.com to learn more.