Professional
astronomers have collected pictures of one million
galaxies in our
A picture of the galaxy NGC 6070 from
the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
universe. These
pictures came from a project called the Sloan Digital
Sky Survey. Now, the
astronomers want to sort the galaxies they have found by
shape. However, there are too many galaxies for professional astronomers
to look at and sort on their own. This would take a very long time. So they have
asked the public for help. Astronomers want people around the world to help look
at the pictures of the galaxies on a Web site and classify them into different
kinds. All you need is a computer with connection to the Internet. This project
is called Galaxy Zoo. Astronomers want people instead of computers to
help because some of the pictures are very hard to recognize. They say that
people are much better at identifying these patterns and shapes. Some of the
images of galaxies are unclear and the human eye is the best tool to help decide
what shape a galaxy really is. Scientists say that knowing how many of
each kind of galaxy there are will help them understand more about our universe.
The information will help answer questions about how galaxies are made and how
they change over time. It will also help answer questions about how the universe
works and moves.