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Distributed Project To Classify SDSS Galaxies
Xandu writes "Be part of a human Beowulf by helping classify millions of galaxies from the SDSS at the Galaxy Zoo. From their about page, "Those involved are directly contributing to scientific research, while getting an opportunity to view the beautiful and varied galaxies that inhabit our universe. Why do we need people to do this, rather than just using a computer? The simple answer is that the human brain is much better at recognizing patterns than a computer. Galaxies are complicated objects that vary in appearance enormously, and yet in some ways they can be very similar. We could write a computer program to classify these galaxies, and many researchers have, but so far none have really done a good enough job. We have not been able to make computers 'see past' the complexity, to reliably identify the similarities that appear obvious to our eyes and brain. For now, and probably for some time yet, people do the best job of classifying galaxies."
They're good for something after all.
Perhaps they shouldn't all be killed then.
Heh, I'll bite. Actually, this is version 2 (which came out 2 days ago). The original Galaxy Zoo was launched in July 2007, and only classified galaxies as spiral or not. This is much more fine-grained and allows for significantly better research.
And seriously, 6 jobs in the last 18 months. C'mon!
--Xandu
I also found that it took me probably 3 times as long to classify a single galaxy, because they've gone from an array of buttons to a tree of decisions for each picture. I hope it's worth it, but it's not as dead-simple to operate and it certainly takes longer.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
"Be part of a human Beowulf"
uh, you mean a team?
They will never stop until somebody makes the
After I pick a galaxy out of the lineup, how I can I be sure that it won't come after me later? Many astronomical objects get really bent when they think that they have been incorrectly labeled, and they can hold a grudge for billions of years! Just imagine being outside on a clear dark night and looking over you shoulder and seeing an angry galaxy coming after you. Do you think you can run fast enough to keep out of trouble? I pity the people who demoted Pluto from it's planetary status, I bet that they never go outside when it's dark. I'd rather just mind my own business.