If youve ever wanted to find supernovae, nows your chance. The Australian National University (ANU) is inviting citizen scientists to join the search for the bright, exploding stars. <\/p>\n
Supernovae are the bright explosions that mark the end of a stars life and can shine brighter than entire galaxies. They are incredibly useful for researchers who use the bright light from the explosion as a form of measurement. <\/p>\n
Using exploding stars as markers all across the universe, we can measure how the universe is growing and what its doing, ANU astrophysicist and co-lead researcher Dr. Brad Tucker said in a press release. We can then use that information to better understand dark energy, the cause of the universes acceleration. <\/p>\n
To get involved with the study, all any interested citizen scientist has to do is search images from the SkyMapper telescope, a 1.3-meter telescope at the ANU Siding Spring Observatory, on a website called Zooniverse.org and mark any differences they see in the images. From there, the researchers will check over the marked images and see what they found. <\/p>\n
Dr. Tucker said the team is studying an overwhelmingly large amount of sky, so the help would achieve things that would take scientists working alone years to do. <\/p>\n
The volunteer help isnt without glory, though. Co-lead researcher Dr. Anais Mller from the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics said, The first people who identify an object that turns out to be a supernova will be publicly recognised as co-discoverers. <\/p>\n
Dr. Tucker said the team plans to use this information to gather measurements of the universe as well as have a better understanding of supernovae. <\/p>\n
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See more here:<\/p>\n
Citizen scientists are invited to help find supernovae - Astronomy Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If youve ever wanted to find supernovae, nows your chance. Continue reading