03-10-2012, 12:07 AM
Citizen Scientists Discover Cosmic Bubbles in Milky Way Galaxy
More
than 5,000 space bubbles have been discovered in the disk of our Milky
Way galaxy by a team of part-time citizen scientists.
These bubbles are blown by young, hot stars into the surrounding gas and dust, and indicate areas of brand-new star formation,
scientists
say. "These findings make us suspect that the Milky Way is a much more
active star-forming galaxy than previously thought,"
Eli Bressert,
an astrophysics doctoral student at the European Southern Observatory,
said in a statement. "The Milky Way's disk is like
champagne with
bubbles all over the place." About 35,000 volunteers sifted through data
from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope on the
online Milky Way Project
to make the discoveries. These citizen scientists have found about 10
times more bubbles than previous surveys.
http://www.space.com/14846-milkyway-spa ... ience.html
More
than 5,000 space bubbles have been discovered in the disk of our Milky
Way galaxy by a team of part-time citizen scientists.
These bubbles are blown by young, hot stars into the surrounding gas and dust, and indicate areas of brand-new star formation,
scientists
say. "These findings make us suspect that the Milky Way is a much more
active star-forming galaxy than previously thought,"
Eli Bressert,
an astrophysics doctoral student at the European Southern Observatory,
said in a statement. "The Milky Way's disk is like
champagne with
bubbles all over the place." About 35,000 volunteers sifted through data
from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope on the
online Milky Way Project
to make the discoveries. These citizen scientists have found about 10
times more bubbles than previous surveys.
http://www.space.com/14846-milkyway-spa ... ience.html