For most of us, our home galaxy, the Milky Way, appears like stupendous, never-ending space. What does the Milky Way look like? How fast is the Milky Way giving birth to new stars? In their attempts to unlock these puzzling mysteries, scientists are finding out new ways to break down the immense amounts of data they accumulate. The Milky Way Project is inviting curious volunteers across the globe who can help them sort and measure our galaxy through images of our Galaxy from the Spitzer Space Telescope and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE).
About the Milky Way Project
The Milky Way Project is a citizen science project that is seeking your help looking through tens of thousands of images from the Spitzer Space Telescope and WISE satellite observatory.In the last 12 years, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer missions have taken all-embracing new aspects of our Milky Way galaxy. The project permits amateur scientists to help scientists make sense of this deluge of data.
Citizen scientists will be able to find infrared “bubbles” and estimate their sizes and shapes using their bubble-drawing tool. Scientists are seeking your help to capture these elusive shock waves driven through space by huge stars. So far, citizen scientists have identified more than 5,000 “bubbles” in the disk of our Milky Way galaxy. Young, hot stars inflate the bubbles into encircling gas and dust, highlighting areas of brand new star creation.
So, if you observe anything uncommon in the images, make sure to mark it using the “Other Objects” tool. Who knows? You might find something truly exceptional!
How To Get Involved In The Milky Way Project?
Curious volunteers may go to the website of Milky Way Project and can register themselves for free. After forming a free Zooniverse user account and following a simple set of instructions, citizen scientists will view infrared images showing different parts of our galaxy and help professional scientists by creating drawings on the images to analyze unusual astrophysical phenomena, including interstellar “bubbles” and stellar-wind “bow shocks.” These classifications will help scientists discover some of the most massive stars in our Milky Way Galaxy.
This project is only made achievable by volunteers, hundreds of thousands of people around the world who come together to support professional scientists. The aim is to allow research that would not be possible, or practical, otherwise. Moreover, curious volunteers can also discuss with astronomers and other users on Milky Way ProjectTalk. The team of scientists is excited to collaborate with you!
Scientists Need You!
Citizen science, which is getting immense popularity across the world, enables professional and amateur scientists to collaborate on a study that requires large-scale observational data. Citizen scientists from around the world are being asked to help to map the Milky way galaxy. Endorsing the work of non-scientists might take scientists a while but citizen-led projects have opened up new, unimagined opportunities for science. So jump on over the Milky Way Project and let’s add another 600,000 classifications and continue mapping the galaxy.
