Have you ever wondered how many and what sort of star clusters have been born this way over the history of the Clouds? Well, a new citizen science project, the Local Group Cluster Search, intends to do just that by coupling new, high-quality images of the Magellanic Clouds with a proven method to discover star clusters. Over the last years, volunteers have been actively contributing to various fields ranging from astronomy to medicine and computer science to natural resource management. Now researchers are inviting citizen scientists to become a part of the Local Group Cluster Search and hunt for star clusters in images of our closest galactic neighbors!
About The Local Group Cluster
The Local Group Cluster Search is a Zooniverse citizen science project that invites volunteers to analyze small portions of the SMASH images and distinguish star clusters through the eye. Citizen science explorations are a great alternative to classify clusters, even in today’s age of machine learning and artificial intelligence, because the human brain is highly proficient at pattern identification.
Star clusters are groups of hundreds to millions of stars that were born together out of the same cloud of gas. These objects could be helpful to unlock the secrets of how stars form and evolve, as well as tracking the growth of galaxies. To unlock these secrets, scientists are seeking the help of passionate and curious volunteers to help them uncover the clusters.
All the excited volunteers will get an opportunity to hunt for star clusters in three galaxies in the Local Group, our very own galactic neighborhood: the Triangulum galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, and the Small Magellanic Cloud. The Local Group Cluster Search uses images from the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on the Hubble Space Telescope and the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) at the Blanco 4-m at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO).
So help the scientists to recognize these star clusters in order to help them learn about star formation and the formation history of galaxies in the Milky Way’s backyard!
How To Participate in Local Group Cluster Search?
To get involved in the Local Group Cluster Search, you just have to visit the homepage of the project and can start working on a task. You may also check tutorials that will show you how to participate and can help the scientists study star clusters in nearby galaxies.
When you are finished marking all objects, or there are no objects to mark, just click the “Done & Talk” button to discuss images with other volunteers if you have questions or find something interesting. Else you may click the “Done” button to submit your classification and move on to a new image.
Become A Citizen Scientist!
Citizen scientist cluster identification has a documented track record of success. In the earlier “Andromeda Project,” citizen scientists analyzed 2,753-star clusters in the Andromeda galaxy. The outcomes unveiled that cluster development varies with the galactic environment. Through the Local Group Cluster Search, citizen scientists also recently completed a study of the Triangulum galaxy, classifying thousands of star clusters. With cluster statistics of Andromeda and Triangulum complete, the search now turns to the Magellanic Clouds, the only nearby galaxies yet to be explored by citizen scientists. So help the scientists reveal the secrets of our closest neighbors!
