Cumbrian Sky

Yesterday (read entry below) saw the launch of "Galaxy Zoo", an ambitious online project asking for volunteers to help classify over a million galaxies imaged during the Sloan Survey. And already, the project is being hailed as a huge success, with interest in the "Zoo" surging way ahead of what its - um - keepers dared dream. THE SKY AT NIGHT's Chris Lintott reports that just 10 hours into the project they'd had over 6 MILLION hits on the site, which is incredible and a great vindication of the Zoo team's hopes and confidence.

Here's something I wrote about Galaxy Zoo to say thanks to the team behind it for inviting us all to take part... "Galaxy Zoo"

If you haven't signed up yet, then please, please do, not just because it's important science, a real chance to contribute to astronomy... not just because you'll literally get the chance to see parts of the universe that no-one has ever seen before... not just because it's The Right Thing To Do (come on, what else are you going to do sat there? Look up the latest Big Brother news?)... but because, bottom line, it's just fun! And while you're having fun you will be Adding To Human Knowledge. Win-Win, I'd say!

Unfortunately, it seems that some pesky aliens have already hacked into the site and have posted an image trying to make us feel small...

Just joking! Still, makes you wonder... maybe there's an ET out there right now, click clicking away at his own version of "Galaxy Zoo" when he really should be doing something else, and he just casually clicked on "clockwise spiral" when a grainy image of our own Galaxy appeared on his screen, then moved right on to the next one...

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