Sorting out a million galaxies
At the weekend, Vee and I were in deepest and remotest Kent to visit our friends Derek and Mandy who live in a little village called Broughton-under-Blean. From the balcony of their house, we watched the sunset behind the orchard next to their home.
Derek was a colleague of mine in the Research Department of the Communication Workers Union and now runs a small company that operates excellent walking tours of the Pilgrims Way. You can check out his company called Walk Awhile.
Derek told me that he has been participating in an amazing collaborative effort to categorise what might eventually be up to million galaxies. This operation is called Galaxy Zoo.
Basically there are two types of galaxies: those shaped like rugby balls (or American footballs) which are called ‘ellipticals’ and whirlpool-like galaxies which are called ‘spirals’ .If you like, you can try distinguishing the types by taking this test.
So one minute Derek is looking at the sky to see the sun set and another minute he’s looking at pictures of the heavens to categorise galaxies containing millions of suns.