2008 Woodie Awards
Astrophysicist gives public a chance to classify the stars
Soni Kumar
Issue date: 7/2/08 Section: News
Traveling in a space rocket is no longer necessary to explore the universe. People can now survey the atmosphere from the comfort of their computer.
Aspiring and amateur astronomers came to Meridian Ballroom Monday night to meet astrophysicist Chris Lintott and to hear about his project, Galaxy Zoo.
"Galaxy Zoo is a project designed to invite the public to help classify the shape and distribution of almost a million galaxies," physics professor Pamela Gay, host of the podcast "Astronomycast," said. "150,000 people across the globe looked at nearly a million galaxies."
Lintott said this project offered an easier way to work with vast amounts of information.
"It's a simple solution that is happening everywhere in science," Lintott said. "That is (to say) that we have way too much data to handle."
When the Galaxy Zoo Web site first went up, containing a multitude of galaxies needing to be classified, the project was greeted by an unexpected response.
"(We) put 900,000 galaxies to be classified (and)…at the end of the day, we ended up with 85,000 classifications," Lintott said.
Lintott said simply dividing the 900,000 galaxies into these classifications is useful because it gives scientists information about the galaxies' history and how the galaxies started.
Galaxy Zoo Web site participants can help identify the type and shape of the galaxies, including spiral galaxies like the Milky Way and big balls of stars called ellipticals.
"It's a simple thing to do, and it's pattern recognition, something that the human brain is very good at," Lintott said. "(Humans) are trained to spot patterns against complicated backgrounds."
According to Gay, minds working together produce amazing observations and helps scientists worldwide.
"This is the new direction of science," Gay said. "It is not possible for one scientist to view all their data on their own. Computers are terrible at pattern recognition … humans are great at it."
Aspiring and amateur astronomers came to Meridian Ballroom Monday night to meet astrophysicist Chris Lintott and to hear about his project, Galaxy Zoo.
"Galaxy Zoo is a project designed to invite the public to help classify the shape and distribution of almost a million galaxies," physics professor Pamela Gay, host of the podcast "Astronomycast," said. "150,000 people across the globe looked at nearly a million galaxies."
Lintott said this project offered an easier way to work with vast amounts of information.
"It's a simple solution that is happening everywhere in science," Lintott said. "That is (to say) that we have way too much data to handle."
When the Galaxy Zoo Web site first went up, containing a multitude of galaxies needing to be classified, the project was greeted by an unexpected response.
"(We) put 900,000 galaxies to be classified (and)…at the end of the day, we ended up with 85,000 classifications," Lintott said.
Lintott said simply dividing the 900,000 galaxies into these classifications is useful because it gives scientists information about the galaxies' history and how the galaxies started.
Galaxy Zoo Web site participants can help identify the type and shape of the galaxies, including spiral galaxies like the Milky Way and big balls of stars called ellipticals.
"It's a simple thing to do, and it's pattern recognition, something that the human brain is very good at," Lintott said. "(Humans) are trained to spot patterns against complicated backgrounds."
According to Gay, minds working together produce amazing observations and helps scientists worldwide.
"This is the new direction of science," Gay said. "It is not possible for one scientist to view all their data on their own. Computers are terrible at pattern recognition … humans are great at it."
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