James Webb Telescope captures 5,00,000 galaxies, but NASA needs your help to identify them
Produced by Tarun Mishra
Produced by Tarun Mishra
NASA has released images of approximately 500,000 galaxies captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. These images show galaxies at vast distances, helping researchers observe the universe as it was billions of years ago.
The images have been made available through the Galaxy Zoo citizen science platform. Public volunteers are encouraged to help classify the shapes and features of these galaxies by answering a set of guided questions.
Participants are shown an image and asked questions such as: “Is the galaxy round?” or “Does it have spiral arms?” This data helps astronomers study the structure and evolution of galaxies over time.
According to NASA, the Webb telescope allows scientists to view galaxies at unprecedented distances. Due to the time light takes to travel, these images offer a look at galaxies as they were billions of years ago.
The classification project is open to the general public, including children aged 10 and above. Volunteer Christine Macmillan from Scotland said that the process is simple and offers access to some of the first images of newly-formed galaxies.
Galaxy Zoo began in 2007 with data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and has since expanded to include images from the Hubble and Euclid telescopes. The James Webb data represents its latest and most distant sample set.
NASA stated that understanding galaxy shapes helps scientists investigate their formation, star creation patterns, and interactions with neighbouring systems. This contributes to broader research on the evolution of the universe.