Universe (Oct 2022)
Launching the VASCO Citizen Science Project
- Beatriz Villarroel,
- Kristiaan Pelckmans,
- Enrique Solano,
- Mikael Laaksoharju,
- Abel Souza,
- Onyeuwaoma Nnaemeka Dom,
- Khaoula Laggoune,
- Jamal Mimouni,
- Hichem Guergouri,
- Lars Mattsson,
- Aurora Lago García,
- Johan Soodla,
- Diego Castillo,
- Matthew E. Shultz,
- Rubby Aworka,
- Sébastien Comerón,
- Stefan Geier,
- Geoffrey W. Marcy,
- Alok C. Gupta,
- Josefine Bergstedt,
- Rudolf E. Bär,
- Bart Buelens,
- Emilio Enriquez,
- Christopher K. Mellon,
- Almudena Prieto,
- Dismas Simiyu Wamalwa,
- Rafael S. de Souza,
- Martin J. Ward
Affiliations
- Beatriz Villarroel
- Nordita, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University, Roslagstullsbacken 23, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
- Kristiaan Pelckmans
- Department of Information Technology, Uppsala University, Box 337, 751 05 Uppsala, Sweden
- Enrique Solano
- Departamento de Astrofísica, Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC/INTA), P.O. Box 78, 28691 Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain
- Mikael Laaksoharju
- Department of Information Technology, Uppsala University, Box 337, 751 05 Uppsala, Sweden
- Abel Souza
- Autonomous Distributed Systems Lab., Department of Computing Science, Umeå Universitet, 901 87 Umeå, Sweden
- Onyeuwaoma Nnaemeka Dom
- Center for Basic Space Science, National Space Research and Development Agency, Nsukka, P.O. Box 2022, Enugu 410002, Nigeria
- Khaoula Laggoune
- Sirius Astronomy Association, Sirius Astronomy Association, BP 18, Cité du 20 Aout, Constantine 25000, Algeria
- Jamal Mimouni
- Department of Physics, University of Constantine 1, LPMPS & CERIST, Constantine 25000, Algeria
- Hichem Guergouri
- Research Unit in Scientific Mediation, Science of Matter Division, CERIST, Constantine 25016, Algeria
- Lars Mattsson
- Nordita, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University, Roslagstullsbacken 23, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
- Aurora Lago García
- IES Tartessos, Barriada Hiconsa s/n, 41900 Camas, Sevilla, Spain
- Johan Soodla
- Department of Information Technology, Uppsala University, Box 337, 751 05 Uppsala, Sweden
- Diego Castillo
- Department of Information Technology, Uppsala University, Box 337, 751 05 Uppsala, Sweden
- Matthew E. Shultz
- Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Delaware, 217 Sharp Lab, Newark, DE 19716, USA
- Rubby Aworka
- Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute, Atomic-Haatso Rd., Kwabenya, Accra P.O. Box LG 80 233, Ghana
- Sébastien Comerón
- Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Avda Vía Láctea s/n, 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
- Stefan Geier
- Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Avda Vía Láctea s/n, 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
- Geoffrey W. Marcy
- Space Laser Awareness, 3883 Petaluma Hill Rd., Santa Rosa, CA 95404, USA
- Alok C. Gupta
- Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Manora Peak, Nainital 263 001, India
- Josefine Bergstedt
- Independent Researcher, 752 17 Uppsala, Sweden
- Rudolf E. Bär
- Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics, ETH Zürich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 27, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland
- Bart Buelens
- Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), 2400 Mol, Belgium
- Emilio Enriquez
- Department of Astrophysics/IMAPP, Radboud University Nijmegen, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Christopher K. Mellon
- Galileo Project Affiliate, Laughlintown, PA 15655, USA
- Almudena Prieto
- Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Avda Vía Láctea s/n, 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
- Dismas Simiyu Wamalwa
- Meru Physics Department, University of Science and Technology, Meru P.O. Box 972-60200, Kenya
- Rafael S. de Souza
- Key Laboratory for Research in Galaxies and Cosmology, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 80 Nandan Rd., Shanghai 200030, China
- Martin J. Ward
- Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Department of Physics, Durham University, South Rd., Durham DH1 3LE, UK
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/universe8110561
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 8,
no. 11
p. 561
Abstract
The Vanishing & Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations (VASCO) project investigates astronomical surveys spanning a time interval of 70 years, searching for unusual and exotic transients. We present herein the VASCO Citizen Science Project, which can identify unusual candidates driven by three different approaches: hypothesis, exploratory, and machine learning, which is particularly useful for SETI searches. To address the big data challenge, VASCO combines three methods: the Virtual Observatory, user-aided machine learning, and visual inspection through citizen science. Here we demonstrate the citizen science project and its improved candidate selection process, and we give a progress report. We also present the VASCO citizen science network led by amateur astronomy associations mainly located in Algeria, Cameroon, and Nigeria. At the moment of writing, the citizen science project has carefully examined 15,593 candidate image pairs in the data (ca. 10% of the candidates), and has so far identified 798 objects classified as “vanished”. The most interesting candidates will be followed up with optical and infrared imaging, together with the observations by the most potent radio telescopes.
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