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New Website Invites Public to Help Identify Seafloor Life and Habitats

By Guest PostSeptember 15, 2012Environment, Scienceamber york, annotation tool, arfon smith, astronomy, citizen science alliance, csa, distribution, financial resource, galaxy zoo, georges bank, habcam, habitat, hole, hugh popenoe, identify, image, institution, jonathan howland, lophius americanus, mapping, monkfish, norman vine, object, oceanographic, old weather, placopecten magellanicus, planet hunters, predator, scallops, scott gallager, seafloor, seafloor explorer, starfish, underwater vehicle, web interface, web programmer, whoi, woods, zooniverse

The public is invited to help identify objects they see in images of the seafloor through a new interactive website called “Seafloor Explorer.” The result of a unique collaboration between oceanographers studying seafloor habitats, Web programmers and social scientists, Seafloor Explorer (www.seafloorexplorer.org) launches September 13.

The team has more than 40 million images, but are launching the site with a preliminary set of 100,000 – all of them taken by HabCam, a habitat mapping underwater vehicle. HabCam was developed and built by the HabCam group, which comprises marine biologists and engineers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) as well as fishermen and other scientists. The Seafloor Explorer interactive website was funded by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and built in collaboration with the HabCam Group by the Citizen Science Alliance (CSA), the developers behind interactive sites found on Zooniverse.org. (more…)

A Green Ring Fit for a Superhero

By Guest PostJune 19, 2011Scienceastronomers, citizen scientist, constellation scorpius, diminutive guardians, emerald nebula, galactic plane, Galaxy, green ring of dust, infrared colors, infrared detectors, NASA, o stars, planet oa, public astronomy projects, rcw 120, spitzer, spitzer space telescope, superhero green lantern, the milky way project, ultraviolet light, zooniverse

This glowing emerald nebula seen by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope is reminiscent of the glowing ring wielded by the superhero Green Lantern. In the comic books, the diminutive Guardians of the Planet “Oa” forged his power ring, but astronomers believe rings like this are actually sculpted by the powerful light of giant “O” stars. O stars are the most massive type of star known to exist.

Named RCW 120 by astronomers, this region of hot gas and glowing dust can be found in the murky clouds encircled by the tail of the constellation Scorpius. The green ring of dust is actually glowing in infrared colors that our eyes cannot see, but show up brightly when viewed by Spitzer’s infrared detectors. At the center of this ring are a couple of giant stars whose intense ultraviolet light carved out the bubble, though they blend in with the other stars when viewed in infrared. (more…)

Citizen Scientists Join Search for Earth-like Planets

By Guest PostDecember 19, 2010Scienceastronomers, citizen science project, constellation, cygnus, debra fischer, dimming of light, earth, earth like planets, exoplanets, galaxy zoo, galaxy zoo project, global network, globe, human computing power, jupiter, kepler mission, kevin schawinski, large gas giants, meg schwamb, NASA, planet candidates, planet hunters, solar system, space telescope, sun, web users, yale astronomer, zooniverse

Web users around the globe will be able to help professional astronomers in their search for Earth-like planets thanks to a new online citizen science project called Planet Hunters that launched Dec. 16. at www.planethunters.org.

Planet Hunters, which is the latest in the Zooniverse citizen science project collection, will ask users to help analyze data taken by NASA’s Kepler mission. The space telescope has been searching for planets beyond our own solar system—called exoplanets—since its launch in March 2009. (more…)

Tag Archives: zooniverse

New Website Invites Public to Help Identify Seafloor Life and Habitats

A Green Ring Fit for a Superhero

Citizen Scientists Join Search for Earth-like Planets