Galaxy Zoo — Real-World Science Project

2 Comments » // July 12th, 2007

Here is an exciting opportunity for homeschoolers to engage in a real-world project focused on scientific research:

Welcome to GalaxyZoo , the project which harnesses the power of the internet – and your brain – to classify a million galaxies. By taking part, you’ll not only be contributing to scientific research, but you’ll view parts of the Universe that literally no-one has ever seen before and get a sense of the glorious diversity of galaxies that pepper the sky.

Why do we need you?
The simple answer is that the human brain is much better at recognizing patterns than a computer can ever be. Any computer program we write to sort our galaxies into categories would do a reasonable job, but it would also inevitably throw out the unusual, the weird and the wonderful. To rescue these interesting systems which have a story to tell, we need you.

GZ is now live ahead of our official launch on Wednesday. We’re still tidying up the site but if you’d like to sign up to start classifying galaxies right away, click here.