Zooniverse

Ever wanted to be part of a scientific team? Ever wanted to do something amazing, like discover a planet orbiting a distant sun? Ever wanted to take part in a real science project and maybe make a difference?

Like any real scientist, you will need a lot of patience, as you looking at much data that is unexciting (but is still interesting in its variety), but it is sooooo worth it for the finds you make (see some examples - the ones I have come across and marked -;"> of my transiting planets and eclipsing binaries at the end)!

One way you can do this is to sign up to Zooniverse and take part in one of the space projects that interest you (please read their 'about' page here):

Planet Hunters: Study data from NASA's Kepler mission for thousands and thousands of stars, try to spot where planets cross a star (a transit) and cause the star to dim for a short while.

The Milky Way Project: Aims to sort and measure our galaxy, the Milky Way by finding and drawing bubbles in beautiful infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope.
Moon Zoo: Explore the Moon in unprecedented detail using images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Galaxy Zoo: Hubble: The latest version of the original Zooniverse project, where you can help astronomers figure out how galaxies form and evolve by classifying their shape.


Solar Stormwatch: Help spot explosions on the Sun and track them across space to Earth. Your work will give astronauts an early warning if dangerous solar radiation is headed their way. And you could make a new scientific discovery.

Galaxy Zoo: Mergers: Understanding what happens when galaxies merge is one of the most important questions in astronomy. Help astronomers by trying to match a merger from SDSS with a simulation.

Galaxy Zoo Supernovae: Help to catch an exploding star. Astronomers are following up on your best candidates at telescopes around the world.

Old Weather: Help scientists recover worldwide weather observations made by Royal Navy ships around the time of World War I.


Here are a few examples of interesting stars I've personally come across and marked in my favourite project, Planet Hunters


First a couple of the single transits I've marked (with only one 'dimming' in the data given) - if you click on them you can see the raw data I found them in:




Then there's data with more than one reading:



or an eclipsing binary (with two stars of different brightness orbiting each other):



This one isn't so clear, but if you click on it and enlarge it using the magnifier at the bottom of the image on that page (two circles, one at each side, you can drag in to expand a particular area. Then you can move the highlighted area across to see other features):



But, if you join up, you will see that you have to look at many different possibilites before you come across any of these (if you're lucky you might see one in your first hundred or so, but you may have to wait longer). More likely you will see images like these, where you will have to use your own judgement whether or not there's anything there:





You will come across many different star types - ones that vary over several hours or days, or ones that seem to only increase or decrease over the readings, ones that give off white noise, or ones that have such intricate patterns you will be amazed!

Here's just a very small selection:


I can't even begin to show all the types you will come across, but, for me, it has been an exciting adventure into astronomy, and research....I hope you find it so too...