Thousands of new tracers for star formations have been found in our galaxy by the GLIMPSE project’s team of citizen scientists. Whimsically named “Yellow Balls” by the citizen scientists, these tracers were found in the false color, infrared images of our galactic plane amongst bubbles of pink and green. These bubbles are fascinating regions packed with information about stellar formation, which is great news for astronomers. Determining the properties of Yellow Balls is too time consuming for a single team to investigate, but it’s a great fit for “people-powered research”.
Researchers can post their data on websites like zooniverse.com where anyone can view the data, briefly learn about the research, then inspect the data according to the questions the researchers are posing. With the combined efforts of citizen science volunteers, the GLIMPSE team was able to discern that Yellow Balls are dense, infantile star forming regions. There is still so much we can learn from Yellow Balls, but because there are so many of them, in depth research would be incredibly tedious and time consuming. So how do we fix that?
Enter the PERYSCOPE project: People Enabled Research – a Yellow Ball Survey of Colors Of Protostellar Environments. This project focuses on photometry, the measurement of light. The PERYSCOPE project requires a bit of training since it runs on Python code, rather than the simple UI seen on Zooniverse. Because of the training required, the PERYSCOPE project is perfect for students to work on as part of their Astronomy courses, allowing them to contribute to active astronomical research.
To understand more about Yellow Balls, star forming regions, and citizen science check out Dr. Katie Devine’s First Friday lecture linked below!
Boise State First Friday Astronomy – Dr. Katie Devine – August 2022