No real idea what the point is... but if you're feeling kind of bored and philanthropic at the same time, you could check out http://www.galaxyzoo.org/Press.aspx and perhaps classify some galaxies in your spare time.
BTW, who knew astronomers were so hot... from reverse 3/4 angle at least.
Galaxy Zoo...
Moderator: TheMachine
Galaxy Zoo...
May 2003 - "Mission Accomplished"
June 2005 - "The mission isn't easy, and it will not be accomplished overnight"
-- G W Bush, freelance writer for The Daily Show.
June 2005 - "The mission isn't easy, and it will not be accomplished overnight"
-- G W Bush, freelance writer for The Daily Show.
-
Neost
- Almost 1337
- Posts: 911
- Joined: July 3, 2002, 1:56 pm
- Gender: Male
- XBL Gamertag: neost
- Wii Friend Code: neost
- Contact:
Re: Galaxy Zoo...
I picked that site up off of Bad Astronomy Blog and have spent way too much time the last week identifying galaxies. It's a cool way to kill some time.
Basically there are millions of images of galaxies that have not been classified as spiral, merging, etc. etc. so they give you a quickie test on how to ID these galaxies, then a test to see if you've learned anything. Once you pass the test they give you random images of galaxies and ask you to ID them as best you can. I would imagine if they show the same image to 50 people, and 40 ID it as a clockwise spiral then they pretty much throw that into the clockwise spiral group.
There are some pretty cool images and every once in a while you'll get merging galaxies. I've seen 2 merging images out of the probably 400 or so that I've viewed and classified.
It's a fun way to waste some time. IIRC most of these are hubble images that haven't been reviewed yet.
Basically there are millions of images of galaxies that have not been classified as spiral, merging, etc. etc. so they give you a quickie test on how to ID these galaxies, then a test to see if you've learned anything. Once you pass the test they give you random images of galaxies and ask you to ID them as best you can. I would imagine if they show the same image to 50 people, and 40 ID it as a clockwise spiral then they pretty much throw that into the clockwise spiral group.
There are some pretty cool images and every once in a while you'll get merging galaxies. I've seen 2 merging images out of the probably 400 or so that I've viewed and classified.
It's a fun way to waste some time. IIRC most of these are hubble images that haven't been reviewed yet.