GALAXY ZOO - CLASSIFYING DEEP SPACE GALAXIES

Galaxy Zoo is part of the online Citizen Science project Zooniverse. We classify galaxies that have been filmed and then computed by the Hubble Deep Space telescope. 

In addition to GalaxyZoo classifying project, the Citizen Science project has other live projects. They are: 

Planethunters.org, 

The Milky Way Project, 

Moon Zoo, 

Old Weather, 

Solar Storm Watch, 

GalaxyZoo Understanding Cosmic Mergers, 

GalaxyZoo the Hunt for Supernovas

I also take part in the Cosmic Merger project, Old Weather, Planet Hunters and The Milky Way Project. It's all very interesting, very informative and there are forums where you discuss the object you are currently studying.

Most of  the galaxies in GalaxyZoo are from deep space, that is near the edge of the known universe, and taken robotically by the Hubble Telescope. So the person classifying them is usually the very first human to see these objects. Likewise, you too will be some of the first humans to see these images.

Below are some of the Deep Space Galaxies I've classified for Galaxy Zoo

SPIRAL GALAXIES

Spiral Glaaxy

This is a lovely spiral galaxy. Not all the ones seen in deep space are this well formed. Light from this galaxy has taken 11.763 billion years to reach Earth, and so we are seeing the galaxy as it was 11.763 billion years ago. The age of the present known universe (from the Big Bang) is 13.299 billion years. 

The other galaxies listed below have approximately the same statistics.

Radio Spiral Galaxy

The predominance of clusters of blue stars and radio waves suggest that this galaxy is prolific in new star formation 

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Egde on spiral

An edge on spiral with a prominant dust lane, suggesting lots of intergalactic material for star new formation

MERGING GALAXIES

Two galaxies have merged

Shell eliptical

Shell ellipticals happen when two galaxies merge at high speed. The result being that lots of stars get knocked out of the galactic plane and thus form what looks like a "shell" around the new galaxy.

Star formation after merger.

After two or more galaxies have merged, the resulting collision of gasses in the galactic plane trigger new star formation. The above is a rather complicated merger possibly showing the (bluish) area of new star formation.

NOTE: Our own galaxy The Milky Way id on a collision course with our nearest spiral neighbour The Andromeda galaxy! However, this merger wont take place for a few million years.

ELLIPTICAL GALAXIES

Blue eliptical

A huge galaxy with millions of young blue stars.

Red galaxy

A red galaxy consisting of older stars. No new stars are formed in these galaxies

LENTICULAR GALAXIES

Lenticulalr galaxies. These are a neither spiral or elliptical, but they have a galactic plane which is between the two types. They have a flat disk, but no spiral arms although a centre bar is sometimes visible.

Blue lenticular

A Yellow lenticular

Blue lenticular viewed edge on

RINGED GALAXIES

Ringed galaxies are often spectacular and sometimes strange looking objects. The ring is probably a left over from galaxy transitions or mergers.

Heart shaped ring

The above galaxy is lenticular with a heart shaped ring.

A lovely ringed galaxy with a spiral at the top of the picture

BARRED SPIRAL GALAXIES

Beautiful barred spiral with an edge on spiral

A beautiful inner ringed barred spiral

Well there you have it. A very small selection of my galaxies with galaxy Zoo. Hope you like the pictures.