Sometimes even the best technology isn’t as convincing as a lot of people working together. That’s why astronomers using the VERITAS telescopes are seeking your help to figure out ring patterns on camera images from the VERITAS gamma-ray observatory. After the immense success of the original (ASTERICS-supported) Muon Hunter project, they have now come up with another citizen science project, Muon Hunters 2.0 Return of the Ring. School kids often make great citizen scientists because they tend to be curious and expert at obeying specific rules. Sometimes they’re even better at these things than adults. Therefore, this blog post will be extremely helpful in providing useful insights about Muon Hunters 2.0 – Return Of The Rings.
What’s New in Muon Hunters 2.0: Return of the Ring?
Muon Hunter 2.0 aims to collaborate with volunteers to analyze the data from the VERITAS telescopes to identify muon ring images. Each image is then listed several times to identify camera images that contain muon rings so we can train computers to better identify such images and efficiently filter out those troublesome muons that are imitating as gamma rays.
The original Muon Hunter project was performed to detect some of the highest-energy photons in the Universe using data from the VERITAS telescopes. These photons are gamma-rays that evolved from the astrophysical conditions such as the expanding blast waves from supernova explosions, or from powerful streams of material that flow from the cores of active galaxies at speeds close to that of light.
About VERITAS
VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) is the world’s most powerful telescope array for examining high energy astrophysics with gamma rays. The array of four telescopes is engineered to identify Very High Energy (VHE) gamma rays and probe the highest energy zones of our universe. From star-forming galaxies to blazars, supernova traces to pulsars, and possibly even dark matter, it examines the craziest and most unusual places we could ever imagine. So you will be getting the best data possible out of the VERITAS telescopes to understand the muon rings
Through this citizen science project, volunteers may provide feedback about how well the machine is doing and what all can be done to make it do better. However, there are certain things that you have to keep in your mind such as you should be able to quickly classify the types of showers you see. As the machine is still in the learning phase, sometimes muons may be clustered with non-muons and vice-versa. Once you will classify all the grid, astronomers will use those to retrain the machine. While classifying the grids, carefully check for the grids that have unique properties among the images and do inform about this while having a discussion with the team. You just don’t have to think about the fact that there are simulated images here, but just try your best at determining whether an image is a muon or not.
Citizen science projects take the fun of experimenting to another level than usual lab practices because these experiments are authentic, seeking innovation and unique answers. What’s cool about citizen science versus a lab experiment is that school kids get that this has a specific goal. Nowadays, most parents worry about kids losing interest in science. But such fun, exciting citizen science projects restore their faith and keep their kids occupied.
