Galaxy Zoo 2: Help Classify Galaxies and Understand the Universe

If you have even a slight interest in astronomy, then you should immediately visit Galaxy Zoo 2. The Galaxy Zoo is a website with a database of some 250,000 pictures, all of galaxies. The pictures were taken as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a comprehensive exploration project of the universe that has been cataloging more astronomical objects in more regions of the universe than any other project to date.

Getting a chance to see some of these amazing pictures is usually interesting enough, but that's far from all you can do at the Galaxy Zoo. On this website you can actually get hands on with astronomy, helping to classify and compare various galaxies spread throughout the known universe.

On the website is an explanation of what the Galaxy Zoo hopes to accomplish, the science behind what they are doing and a tutorial for how you can learn to get the job done. Ultimately, your job is to classify galaxies as either spirals or ellipticals, also judging and grading their various qualities and features.

For example, after identifying a spiral galaxy, you'll then have to classify how tightly wound the spiral is. After that, you try to judge how many spiral arms the galaxy has and then you compare how prominent those spiral arms are as compared to another spiral galaxy.

Now you might be thinking, how can legitimate astronomers be entrusting the random public to credibly classify these galaxies? The way it works is that hundreds and even thousands of people end up classifying the same objects. The numbers are then tabulated to determine how reliable the votes are and how much weight should be given to the consensus opinion.

The website stresses that you shouldn't stress about your choices. You do your best according to the guidelines you're given and try to make some good judgments. But you don't have to worry about single-handedly screwing up an important project.

As the name Galaxy Zoo 2 implies, this is now the second version of the project. The original was launched in July of 2007 and quickly exploded in popularity. The goals with that project were to separate elliptical galaxies from spirals, and then to determine the direction of the spiral galaxies that were identified. After the overwhelming response actually proved to be quite accurate and powerful, the Galaxy Zoo 2 was released, with more detailed tasks such as the ones mentioned above.

If you're interested in astronomy, the Galaxy Zoo 2 project is a fun, engaging and educational way to get involved. You can get started classifying galaxies for yourself by visiting their website at www.galaxyzoo.org.