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Giant leap for broadband

An Oxford scientist has taken astronomy into another dimension.

Dr Chris Lintott thought it would be a productive experiment to ask broadband surfers to help classify one million galaxies. He wanted each assemblage of stars, dust and matter in space to be classed as either spiral, elliptical or merging (when two galaxies come together).

He set up a broadband site in July 2007 called Galaxy Zoo, merely as an adjunct to his work, in the hope each galaxy image would receive at least ten clicks and classifications from broadband surfers. Lintott expected the broadband project to take up to four years to complete.

Yet the response through broadband was more than Lintott could have anticipated. “It was like being hit by a tidal wave,” he says, speaking to the Guardian.

Matter Of Opinion

The broadband site received 10 million clicks in the first three weeks. Displaying the images over broadband, and receiving the public’s perception of them, provides scientists with the assurance that the classification is the right one: “You can have confidence, as we can say, ‘100% of people think that’s a spiral galaxy, so it’s really, really spirally,” says Lintott.

The home page of broadband site Galaxy Zoo opens with: “With your help, we’ve been able to collect millions of classifications, with which to do science faster than we ever thought possible.”

The completion of the broadband galaxy classification system enables Lintott and
fellow researchers to now conduct more in-depth research on the galaxies – no doubt with the help of broadband.

15/01/2009
Author: CompareBroadbandUK staff writer

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