Zooming in on the Universe

" Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. "

Those of us who grew up listening to radio programs simply closed our eyes and imagined places that we could never visit except in our dreams or our imaginations. I believe we have become too complacent and too safe, afraid to let our imaginations run wild. We are a society that steers clear of detours and yet, some of those detours are where the best discoveries have taken place.

What is driving you? Motivation may be a means of getting things done but are you ending up in the right place? Do you imagine yourself accomplishing so much more? Could you imagine being a part of NASA research?

Enter: Zoonuniverse. It boasts that it is "home to the internet's largest, most popular and most successful citizen science projects." Citizen science projects simply seek to involve the public in academic research. There are currently eight "live" projects on Zoonuniverse. NASA Science News states, "Citizen Scientists Making Incredible Discoveries" and Zooniverse director Chris Lintott, an astronomer at the University of Oxford adds, "people are better than computers at detecting the subtleties that differentiate galaxies." According to Galaxy Zoo, "More than 250,000 people have taken part in Galaxy Zoo so far, producing a wealth of valuable data and sending telescopes on Earth and in space chasing after their discoveries."

I wonder what Einstein would do to encourage the dreamers to set their sights on the imagination course? Imagination was, after all, the GPS to take him "everywhere." Only the Shadow knows what will become of the generation of dreamers in the 21st Century.

You can tour the Universe through the lens of the NASA/ESA/Hubble Space Telescope here.

Sources:

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/22apr_zooniverse/

http://www.spacetelescope.org/

http://www.galaxyzoo.org/