Here we are again, representing Galaxy Zoo at Dragon*Con. This is an enormous gathering of science-fiction and fantasy fans, aficionados of science, gaming, costuming, offbeat music – all packed into downtown Atlanta’s five largest conference hotels, every Labor Day holiday weekend. It’s a huge Con – the number of people here at one time or [...]
Galaxy Zoo is three years old today. Three years ago, I opened my laptop in the back of a Royal Astronomical Society meeting, connected my laptop to the rather flakey wifi network and noticed the site had crashed under the sheer weight of demand.
Three years on, we’ve produced excellent science, have moved on to the [...]
The centres of these galaxies can be so energetic that they can outshine the galaxy itself!
This weekend, we’re trying to make as much progress as we can toward producing the webcomic “Hanny and the Quest of the Voorwerp”, a NASA-supported public-outreach effort. Pamela (AKA starstryder) and Bill are at CONvergence in Minneapolis, Minnesota, meeting with writers and artists. In Galaxy Zoo style, we’ve invited people who want to help write it to [...]
This ring galaxy has a Z (redshift) of 1.432, so we’re seeing it as it was 9.15 billion years ago, just under 5 billion years after the big bang!
Here are some pictures from the recent Kitt Peak observing run, illustrating the experience beyond just our data collection (as interesting as that was, and continues to be). Collecting these was easier than usual since I had colleagues at the telescope, so I could run off and shoot pictures from the dome’s catwalk without worrying [...]
80 Cet is in fact locked gravitationally to another star both orbiting around each other on their common centre of mass.