Find the bubbles and fuzzy red blobs

Wow~ bubbles, green knots, red blobs

I mentioned in an earlier post that it had never been a better time to participate in exciting research projects.  Unfortunately, this no longer involves injections of semi-purified plant extracts in an effort ‘to see what happens’.  Today, you can participate in important research efforts in the comfort (and safety!) of your own home.  The common term for this is ‘citizen science’, which is a (dorky) term I hate.  The research doesn’t have to be dorky.  NASA Science News just highlighted one such effort called The Milky Way Project (link) where volunteers can contribute to the analysis of deep sky pictures obtained by the Spitzer space telescope.  After a free sign up, you view images taken by this instrument (many of them never before seen by a human) and identify interesting features in the picture.  One particular project is looking for ‘bubbles’ in interstellar gas.  A simple tutorial explains how to identify and mark the images, which are then submitted for further analysis.  What is so great about this is that anybody can do it!  I’ve ‘bubbled’ quite a few of these images and I can tell you, some of them are truly breath-taking.  The process reminds me of those gem mining attractions in the mountains of North Carolina (I’m sure they’re everywhere).  You get a bag of dirt and sift through it in a slough.  Most bags contain a number of small emeralds or rubies, but every once in awhile you find a honker.  That’s the scientific term for a big-ass emerald.  These images are much the same.  Some are pretty dull, some have a number of interesting features, and every so often you find a honker.  All of these ‘bubbled’ pictures are then fed back through the image analysis software with the ultimate goal of figuring out what the bubbles are, how they are formed, what purpose they serve in star formation. 

Two UFRBs (unidentified fuzzy red blobs)

Bubbles are boring?  You also learn to identify green knots of gas, which are unknown objects that scientists are very interested in learning more about.  These are a fairly new discovery as are the so-called ‘fuzzy red objects’,  which is the technical term for ‘WTF is that red blob’.  Somewhere there are happy graduate students who no longer have to stare at these images 24/7 until they start drawing bubbles in the freckle patterns of their significant others.  What’s in it for you?  Aside from the opportunity to contribute to research on the cutting edge of astronomy, there is also a chance to discover something totally new.  Something unknown to mankind.  Something which may contribute to a major breakthrough in the origin of the universe.  New data comes in from these instruments on a regular basis, so get off Facebook, pull up a chair next to your favorite astrophysicist and stare into the unknown.  I find that a good cabernet goes well with the fuzzy red blobs.