GALAXY CRUISE works together with resident astronomers to examine the intricacies of galaxies. GALAXY CRUISE, in cooperation with resident astronomers, utilizes the Subaru Telescopes images to discover galaxy tricks. The Universe is filled with a wide variety of galaxies; some galaxies are red elliptical galaxies, while others are blue spiral galaxies. Dr. Masayuki Tanaka, the Captain of GALAXY CRUISE, carefully analyzed the person scientists categories and discovered that the resident astronomers categorized galaxies very well. The sample of engaging galaxies exposed that these galaxies reveal an enhanced level of star formation activity (Note 1) compared to normal galaxies.
A galaxy contains a massive reservoir of gas. In other words, a galaxy is a production factory for stars.
A massive galaxy most likely hosts a supermassive great void at its center. A black hole has strong gravity and pulls matter from its environments. As matter falls onto a black hole, the matter forms a disk, which is intense and is observed as an activity of the great void. Greater great void activity suggests more material is streaming onto the great void.
This result is reported in the very first clinical paper from GALAXY CRUISE. The person astronomers classifications are offered to the public so that astronomers from all over the world can use them to make brand-new discoveries.
Figure 1: GALAXY CRUISE, the very first Japanese resident science task for astronomy, set sail in November 2019. It aims to deal with why galaxies exhibit the various colors and shapes that we see today. The very first season of GALAXY CRUISE ran till April 2022. The first clinical paper based upon the galaxy morphology brochure containing over 2 million classifications was published. The brochure was likewise made public. Credit: NAOJ
Galactic Diversity and Citizen Participation
The Universe is filled with a large variety of galaxies; some galaxies are red elliptical galaxies, while others are blue spiral galaxies. There are likewise galaxies without well-defined shapes.
To overcome this trouble, GALAXY CRUISE called for assistance from citizen astronomers to recognize engaging galaxies from the deep images taken with Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) installed on the Subaru Telescope.
Person astronomers are by no means professional astronomers, but can they categorize galaxies? Citizen astronomers are asked to go through a training course to understand the principles of galaxy morphology.
Lots of citizen astronomers got onboard and were mesmerized by the diversity of galaxies in deep space. About 10,000 citizen astronomers explored the Universe and made more than 2 million classifications in the first 2.5 years of GALAXY CRUISE. Such a big number of classifications would not have actually been possible by expert astronomers alone.
Research Findings and Implications
Dr. Masayuki Tanaka, the Captain of GALAXY CRUISE, thoroughly evaluated the person scientists classifications and discovered that the citizen astronomers categorized galaxies extremely well. The quality of the HSC images is important for the high classification accuracy; there are numerous galaxies that were categorized as elliptical galaxies in previous studies, but they turn out to exhibit clear spiral arms in the deeper HSC images.
Figure 2: Spiral galaxies recognized by the person astronomers. They all show gorgeous spiral arms. Credit: NAOJ
The exact same uses to communicating galaxies, which are the focus of GALAXY CRUISE. They often reveal distorted shapes with characteristic functions around them such as tidal tails when galaxies merge and collide. These features are typically scattered and faint and can quickly be missed out on. Thanks to the high sensitivity and high angular resolution of the HSC images, GALAXY CRUISE successfully caught these faint features.
The citizen astronomers found that many of the normal (i.e., non-interacting) galaxies reported in the previous studies really exhibit indications of interaction. In addition, resident astronomers recognized galaxies that are currently undergoing violent mergers.
Figure 3: Violent mergers. The galaxies are considerably distorted by the strong tidal field, demonstrating how violent mergers can be. Credit: NAOJ
The sample of interacting galaxies revealed that these galaxies show an improved level of star development activity (Note 1) compared to regular galaxies. It is most likely that the final coalescence of a merger event is the moment when the internal activity of galaxies is most strongly improved. This is the first paper from GALAXY CRUISE and is a turning point not simply for astronomers but also the taking part resident astronomers.
Challenges and the Way Forward
” There have been a lot of efforts attempting to comprehend the star formation and black hole activities of merging galaxies,” says Tanaka. This is likely due to the difficulties in recognizing combining galaxies, differences in the definition of mergers, differences in the method the galaxies are analyzed, and so on.
” It is a powerful but lengthy method to identify mergers. Combined with the high-quality HSC images, we could construct a better sample of mergers than before and it led us to verify unambiguously that mergers improve the internal activities of galaxies. This is an exceptionally amazing result and it would not have been possible without the participation of a lot of citizen astronomers.”
GALAXY CRUISEs classification catalog has actually been launched to the general public together with the publication of the paper. The premium classifications will be additional exploited by professional astronomers from all over the world. The catalog will ideally lead them to new discoveries.
Public residents can definitely contribute as GALAXY CRUISE showed. GALAXY CRUISE is still on its continuing trip. I am looking forward to welcoming you on board and fixing the mysteries of galaxies together,” Captain Tanaka concludes.
This work has been published online in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan (PASJ) on September 26, 2023, as Tanaka et al. “GALAXY CRUISE: Deep Insights into Interacting Galaxies in the Local Universe.”
Notes
Reference: “Galaxy Cruise: Deep Insights into Interacting Galaxies in the Local Universe” by Masayuki Tanaka, Michitaro Koike, Seiichiro Naito, Junko Shibata, Kumiko Usuda-Sato, Hitoshi Yamaoka, Makoto Ando, Kei Ito, Umi Kobayashi, Yutaro Kofuji, Atsuki Kuwata, Suzuka Nakano, Rhythm Shimakawa, Ken-ichi Tadaki, Suguru Takebayashi, Chie Tsuchiya, Tomofumi Umemoto and Connor Bottrell, 26 September 2023, Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan.DOI: 10.1093/ pasj/psad055.
GALAXY CRUISE teams up with person astronomers to investigate the complexities of galaxies. Using sophisticated images from the Subaru Telescope, the project discovered that galaxies magnify their activities when they combine. The Universe, teeming with diverse galaxies, owes its variety to galactic accidents and mergers over vast cosmic periods.
GALAXY CRUISE, in partnership with person astronomers, utilizes the Subaru Telescopes images to uncover galaxy tricks. The task found that combining galaxies show heightened activity. Through extensive training, citizen astronomers made substantial contributions, making it possible for innovative discoveries about the nature of galaxy interactions and mergers.
GALAXY CRUISE, a person science project led by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), has been sailing the cosmic ocean with person astronomers to discover the tricks of galaxies given that 2019.
Using the deep, high-quality images from the Subaru Telescope combined with high-accuracy categories of galaxies offered by the resident astronomers, expert scientists unambiguously validated that galaxies become more active when they collide and combine with other galaxies.
