As the title suggest, this is of interest to me and probably many of my readers. And the paper with this title has been living on my laptop since it came out in January this year (when I was busy with our launch in Seattle). To be honest, I can’t remember how I found it, but it was probably on twitter or otherwise sent to me by Bill (?). In any case, thanks to the person who did point it out to me and sorry I didn’t share it sooner.
Anyway, have a look at this paper by Johan H. Knapen, as it sheds a light on the various ways amateur and professional astronomers can work together and do good stuff. Naturally, we get a mention with Galaxy Zoo, but it’s extra nice the author names it ‘an extremely successful project’.
“In the first year, GalaxyZoo collected some 50 million classifications from around 150000 volunteers around the world (many of these classifications were repeat observations, allowing the team to reach reliable results). By now, the team of professional astronomers behind GalaxyZoo has published around 20 scientific papers in the professional literature.”
Well it is pretty successful right?! He continues mentioning the discovery of the Voorwerp:
“Undoubtedly the most famous GalaxyZoo participant is a Dutch school teacher named Hanny van Arkel. In 2007, she noticed a small blue-green patch of light below an SDSS galaxy and posted a message asking whether anyone knew what it was. No one knew, and it was called “Hanny’s Voorwerp” (Hanny’s Object). She has since collaborated with a number of professional astronomers who have concluded from additional observations that the patch is most probably a cloud of gas illuminated by a quasar (J´ozsa et al. 2009; Lintott et al. 2009; Rampadarath et al. 2010). Hanny’s Voorwerp has made her famous, and her many media appearances make her an excellent ambassador of astronomy and of “citizen science” in general.”
Thank you very much! (I do like my ‘ambassador job’).
But above all I’d like to quote him on one of his concluding remarks:
“In astronomy, as in other areas of science, ‘citizen science’ is important because it allows dedicated amateurs to contribute directly to scientific progress in collaboration with professionals, but also because it is a great way to popularise science.”
Hear, hear.
