More Galaxies, More Clicks, More Science!
Just a quick update: recently we brought some of our high-redshift (i.e., very distant) galaxies out of retirement. There’s enough going on in these galaxies that having more clicks from you will really help tease out the nuances of the various features and make the classifications even better.
How would you classify these?
So, for those of you who noticed you hadn’t seen many CANDELS galaxies recently, well, you’re about to see a few more. I can’t promise they’ll always be easy to classify, but I hope they’ll at least be an interesting puzzle. As ever, thank you for your classifications!
What is a Galaxy? …the return
The first time I gave a public talk, I spent an hour describing why galaxy classification is fundamentally important to the study of the Universe, the origins of Galaxy Zoo, the amazing response of the volunteers and the diverse results from their collective classifications of a million galaxies near and far. I showed many gorgeous galaxy images, a few dark matter simulations and even a preview of the Hubble image of Hanny’s Voorwerp.
As I finished my talk and the Q&A began, I braced myself for the inevitably interesting and challenging questions (I seem to get a lot of questions about black holes and spacetime).
A brief pause, and then the first question echoed from somewhere in the darkened auditorium: …”What’s a galaxy?”
Oops. Apparently I’d forgotten that little detail at the start of the talk. So I described a typical galaxy (if there is such a thing): a collection of stars, gas, dust, dark matter, all gravitationally bound together. Then I made a joke about scientists forgetting to define their terms, and we moved on to the next raised hand.
Turns out, though, it’s not such an easy question. Even though my casual definition works fine for most galaxies, it’s not at all an agreed-upon standard. We’ve discussed this on the blog before, and even in the short time (astronomically speaking) since Karen wrote that very nice post, more work has been done to find galaxies that push the boundaries and force us to re-think what it really means to be a galaxy.
The circled stars (plus a lot of dark matter you can’t see) are Segue 1, one of the smallest galaxies we know about. To read more on this, click the image.
So, spurred by a very broad interpretation of a question left for us in the comments on the post announcing this hangout, we decided to re-visit the discussion, covering the various properties a galaxy must have, should have, could have, and can’t have. We discussed the smallest galaxies, found by counting and measuring each of their individual stars. We discussed the biggest, brightest galaxies in the universe, living in rich environments and grown fat by eating other galaxies. And everything in between.
Note: when we talk about Segue 1 and 2, I say that these galaxies are unique because they have low mass-to-light ratios. Despite the pause that indicated I was trying to keep from inverting numerator and denominator… that’s exactly what I did. The galaxies have very few stars compared to the amount of dark matter in them, so their mass is high and their light is low, so their mass-to-light ratios are high. Oops (again)!
Next GZ Hangout: 3rd of September, 3 pm GMT
The hangouts have returned from a midsummer hiatus! Our next hangout will be Tuesday, September 3rd, at 3 pm GMT. That’s 8 am PDT, 11 am EDT, 4 pm BST, 5 pm CET, 6 pm CAT. Unfortunately I think that’s 11 pm in Japan and midnight in Sydney, but hopefully we’ll have a hangout at a different time very soon!
Just before the hangout we’ll update this post with the embedded video, so you can watch it live from here. If you’re watching live and want to jump in on Twitter, please do! we use a term you’ve never heard without explaining it, please feel free to use the Jargon Gong by tweeting us. For example: “@galaxyzoo GONG dark matter halo“.
In the meantime, please feel free to leave a question in the comments below. See you soon!
Update: read a summary of the Hangout here: What is a Galaxy?… the Return
Quench Boost: A How-To-Guide, Part 2
It was amazing how quickly the new Quench classifications were completed. We posted them on Friday and you were already done by Sunday morning. Wow, that’s awesome! This means we can turn our full attention to making sense of the data. And we need your help!
In Part 1 of this How-To-Guide to data analysis within Quench, you learned how to use Tools, our analysis platform, and were inspired (or so I hope) about ways to play with the data as you read the background literature about post-quenched galaxies and galaxy evolution.
In Part 2 of this How-To-Guide, we’re going to help you navigate using Tools to compare results from galaxies *you* classified with the rest of the post-quenched galaxy sample.
You’re 12 small steps away from your first comparison plot between your galaxies and the full sample… let’s get started!
Step 1: Enter Tools and log in using your Zooniverse login information.
Step 2: Choose ‘Quench’ in the pull-down menu in the upper-left, next to the words ‘zootools’. Now click ‘Create Dashboard*’ in the upper-right, and give it a name, like: ‘My Data in Context’.
Step 3: Click ‘Data’ in the upper-left and choose ‘Zooniverse’ in the pop-up options.
Step 4: In the window that pops up, choose ‘Recents’ or ‘Collections’. Your choice.
If you classified galaxies in quench.galaxyzoo.org, they’ll be accessible through ‘Recents’. Choose the max number possible. If you created a Collection of interesting galaxies in Quench Talk or want to look at someone else’s Collection, you can access them by clicking ‘Collections’.
I’ve created a Dashboard* in Tools called ‘Example: My Data in Context’. Take a look and, if you’d like, you can even make edits by copying it into your Tools environment.
In my Dashboard ‘Example: My Data in Context’, I chose ‘Collections’. I love #Quencher SUMO_2011’s Collection of ‘Blue’ galaxies from Quench. If you go to that URL, the Collection ID is listed after the final ‘/’ in the URL. In this case, the Collection ID is CGSS00000x. I inputted that ID into the pop-up window in Tools, in the box next to ‘Enter Collection Id:”. I then clicked on ‘Import Data’.
Step 5: Now that you have your galaxies’ information imported into the Dashboard, it’s time to play with them. Click on ‘Tools’ in the upper-left and choose ‘Table’ in the pop-up options.
Step 6: In your Table window, choose ‘Zooniverse-1’ in the pull-down menu under ‘Data Source’. Now the Table knows to work with that set of data.
Step 7: As in Part 1 of this How-To-Guide (https://blog.galaxyzoo.org/2013/08/23/quench-boost-a-how-to-guide-part-1/), you’ll make a new column that has color information about your galaxies. You do this by subtracting the brightness of your galaxy in one filter from the brightness of your galaxy in another filter.
In the open space under ‘Prompt’ in your Table, write: field ‘My Galaxies Color u-r’, .u-.r
If you scroll to the right in your table, you’ll see that you created a new column of information, called ‘My Galaxies Color u-r’.
Step 8: Click ‘Tools’ in the upper-left and choose ‘Scatterplot’ in the pop-up options.
Step 9: In your Scatterplot window, choose ‘Table-2’ in the pull-down menu under ‘Data Source’. Now the Scatterplot knows to work with the Table, which includes your new column with Color information.
Step 10: Choose ‘log_mass’ for the X-axis and ‘My Galaxies Color u-r’ for the Y-axis. Recent star formation is seen strongly in the u-band while older stars dominate the r-band. The color, u-r, tells you about the star formation history for each of your galaxies. Check out this post for more details.
Step 11: How do your galaxies compare with the full sample of post-quenched galaxies? To answer this, we redo the steps 3-10 above, but for the post-quenched galaxy sample.
- Click on ‘Data’ in the upper-left and choose ‘Quench’ in the pop-up options.
- Click on ‘Quench Sample’ in the pop-up window.
- Click on ‘Tools’ in the upper-left and choose ‘Table’ in the pop-up options.
- In the new Table window, choose ‘Quench-4’ in the pull-down menu under ‘Data Source’. This loads the Quench Sample into that Table.
- In the open space under ‘Prompt’ in your Table, write: field ‘Quench Galaxies Color u-r’, .u-.r
- Click on ‘Tools’ in the upper-left and choose ‘Scatterplot’ in the pop-up options.
- In the new Scatterplot window, choose ‘Table-5’ in the pull-down menu under ‘Data Source’.
- Choose ‘log_mass’ for the X-axis and ‘Quench Galaxies Color u-r’ for the Y-axis.
- Zoom in on the data, for example, choosing Xmin: 7, Xmax: 12, Ymin: 1, and Ymax: 4.
Step 12: Place your two scatterplots side by side. For a fair comparison, make sure the x- and y-axis range is the same for both plots, otherwise the stretch might skew your analysis. I tend to make the axes ranges in the plot showing My Galaxies match the plot showing the Quench Sample.
What do you notice about your subsample of post-quenched galaxies compared to the full sample? Do they occupy a particle sub-space within the plot? Or are they randomly distributed throughout the quench space?
The figure below shows what you’ll see if, like me, you uploaded SUMO_2011’s Collection of blue galaxies. You’ll notice that all of the blue-collection galaxies are way bluer (closer to the bottom of the plot, near values u-r = 1.5) than the full post-quenched galaxy sample (which spread from u-r values of 1 to u-r values of 3.5 and higher). This is a reassuring reality check given what you see visually when you look at the color of the galaxies. The plot also tells us that since these blue galaxies have such low values of ‘u-r’, they’ve had more recent star formation than most of the post-quenched galaxies.
In looking at these two plots side-by-side, I wondered: Why are there so few massive post-quenched galaxies (log_mass > 11) with bluer colors (u-r < 2.0)? If we compare our post-quenched galaxies with our control galaxies, do I see any difference? Specifically, are there massive (log_mass > 11) control galaxies with bluer colors (u-r < 2.0)? If there are, what might that be telling me about our post-quenched galaxy sample?
Stay tuned for Part 3 of our How-To-Guide for taking part in the analysis phase of the research process. If you have suggestions for what you’d like to learn more about, please post here. Thank you all, and keep on Quenching!
*Dashboard is the place within Tools (tools.zooniverse.org) for volunteers to observe, collect, and analyze data from Zooniverse citizen science projects.
Quench Boost: A How-To Guide, Part 1
The reaction to GZ Quench has been amazing. It has been great to see the interest and enthusiasm for supporting citizen scientists in experiencing the full scientific process.
This morning’s post was about how we have a small sample of additional galaxies to classify. I’ve really enjoyed watching how fast those are being done… gotta love the counter at http://quench.galaxyzoo.org/. Thank you all!
This post is Part 1 of our How-To-Guide for analyzing our classification results. It’s clear that you’re interested in getting your analysis on, but it may be that you’re not sure where to start. That’s 100% understandable and we’re here to help. We’ve broken down the steps into bite-size chunks. Let’s get started.
The first thing to do is to meet Quench Tools. This is the web platform to help you play with the data. To enter Quench Tools, click here. An in-line Tutorial will automatically pop-up, and guide you through entering the Quench area, loading the data, and creating your first figure. For additional information about Tools, check out our GZ Hangout about Tools, our text-based Tools Tutorial, and this Quench Talk discussion forum post.
In parallel with getting to know Tools, you may be interested in understanding the science context for why post-quenched galaxies (the GZ Quench sample) are so interesting for galaxy evolution studies. A great starting place for getting a sense of the science context and motivation is to read the summaries (written for the general public) of science articles at http://postquench.blogspot.com/. It’s modeled after the astrobites blog, a great resource for any astronomy enthusiast!
As you read those posts, you might want to join the conversation within the Quench Talk discussion forum. There are also a slew of links to popular science articles and websites for additional information about post-quenched galaxies and galaxy evolution.
And if you feel it would help to take a step back and see the big picture, definitely check out our initial GZ Quench blog post and this Quench Talk post.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of our How-To-Guide. In it, I’ll guide you through the next bite-size piece of this adventure – playing with your own classification results!
Quench: New Classifications Needed
We have a few dozen new galaxies in GZ Quench that need your classification savvy. As with all research projects, there are sure to be some glitches. Luckily we have a great group of Quenchers on the job. And as a few pointed out (including the force of nature that is Jean Tate!), 57 of our 3002 control sample galaxies were duplicates. We’ve identified suitable replacements and, to make sure no bias is introduced, we’ve added some of the original post-quenched galaxies to the mix as well. So let’s get classifying!
For a reminder about what GZ Quench is all about, check out the first Quench blog post. Yes, in this project, we’re not only classifying galaxies, but we’re going all the way to support our citizen scientists in experiencing the full process of science.
We’re now into Phase 2 of GZ Quench, analyzing the results of the classifications and making sense of our data. Our amazing group of Quenchers have provided incredibly useful feedback on the analysis tools we’ve made available and the analysis process. And there are already a number of intriguing results (for example, here and here)!
We’re now ready to give Quench a boost. Later today I’ll post Part 1 of our How-To-Guide, breaking the analysis phase into bite-size pieces and providing a smoother on-ramp for all of you out there who want to join in the GZ Quench experience, but aren’t sure where to begin.
Stay tuned…
GZ: Quench data update
Since finishing the classifications for the GZ: Quench project, many of our volunteers have been analyzing that consensus data using the tools at tools.galaxyzoo.org. We made a few changes to the site earlier this week, and I’d like to describe them and talk about how it might affect your work on the project.
First, a quick reminder of how the data is presented. As most of you probably remember, the classification process on GZ: Quench (and all GZ projects since GZ2) is what we call a “decision tree”. We begin with a broad question on morphology (ie, “Is this galaxy smooth, or does it have features or a disk?”) for the volunteer to answer. We then ask more specific follow-up questions that depend on the previous answers. For example – if you said the galaxy doesn’t have any spiral arms, it doesn’t make sense for us to then ask you how many arms there are – it doesn’t apply to this galaxy! So, out of 11 potential questions covering galaxy morphology, a single classifier will only answer a subset (between 4 and 9) of them. Here’s a flowchart of the decision tree for GZ: Quench — it’s an interesting exercise to look at it and work out how many unique morphologies you could sort galaxies into by going through the tree.
Flowchart of the morphology decision tree for GZ: Quench
So, why this discussion? When we added the data to the Tools website, we added a label in each category that gave the most common response to that question. For example, under “Arm tightness”, you could see that all galaxies were either “Tight”, “Medium”, or “Loose”. However, this is problematic when you’re trying to analyze data and compare different sets of galaxies. For smooth (or elliptical) galaxies, though, this arm classification is the result of very few votes (or even none) — they don’t represent the majority of classifications, and thus we really shouldn’t be including them when trying to compare what makes a medium-wound vs. a loosely-wound spiral.
The solution we’ve adopted has been to edit the data on Tools — questions whose answers don’t apply to the consensus morphology (eg, spiral arms in a smooth galaxy, or the roundness of a spiral) are now blank. This means that if you look at the average color or size of any of these morphology properties, you’re now truly comparing similar groups of objects (apples to apples). Including other galaxies in earlier samples likely introduced a significant amount of bias – the science team thinks that this will largely help to address that.
Example of the new GZ: Quench classification set in Tools
What does this mean for your analysis? Most of your old Dashboards and results should still work and remain valid results. For any work where you were analyzing morphological details (especially for spiral structure), though, we encourage you to revisit these and run them again on the new, filtered dataset. Please keep posting any questions you have on Talk, and we’ll answer them as soon as we can. Good luck!
Galaxy Zoo 2 data release
It’s always exciting to see a new Galaxy Zoo paper out, but today’s release of our latest is really exciting. Galaxy Zoo 2: detailed morphological classifications for 304,122 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, now accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, is the result of a lot of hard work by Kyle Willett and friends.
Lead author Kyle, seen here taking a rare moment away from reducing Galaxy Zoo data.
Galaxy Zoo 2 was the first of our projects to go beyond simply splitting galaxies into ellipticals and spirals, and so these results provide data on bars, on the number of spiral arms and on much more besides. The more complicated project made things more complicated for us in turning raw clicks on the website into scientific calculations – we had to take into account the way the different classifications depended on each other, and still had to worry about the inevitable effect that more distant, fainter or smaller galaxies will be less likely to show features.
We’ve got plenty of science out of the Zoo 2 data set while we were resolving these problems, but the good news is that all of that work is now done, and in addition to the paper we’re making the data available for anyone to use. You can find it alongside data from Zoo 1 at data.galaxyzoo.org. One of the most rewarding things about the project so far has been watching other astronomers make use of the original data set – and now they have much more information about each galaxy to go on.
And the winner is….. Arp 142 (The Penguin Galaxy)
Well it was a very close fought battle, but the winner of our fun vote to pick the cover image for the October A&G was:
Apr 142 (aka The Penguin Galaxy):
I include below a screen shot of the poll from today, which confirms that choice. We have now sent this choice to the cover editor, so we won’t count any more votes.
(Most) Galaxy Zoo Papers now Open Access
As announced on the Zooniverse blog, Oxford University Press have agreed that to make the Zooniverse papers published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society open access. While they’ve always been freely available on astro-ph, it’s nice that everyone who contributed can now get access – for free – via the main journal site.
Galaxy Zoo 