Galaxy Zoo, an online astronomical site, has worked with 110,000 amateur and professional astronomers to answer questions regarding galaxy classification.
William Keel, a UA professor of astronomy, became involved with the site when the Galaxy Zoo team looked at pictures from a wide area of the sky and realized the majority of the galaxies were traveling in one direction.
"This would be very big news if it was true," Keel said. "How do all those galaxies know which way to go?"
Galaxy Zoo was formed by several astronomers at institutions in the United Kingdom and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Galaxy Zoo provided training and protocol for volunteers to follow once they were involved with the program.
"Once this was going, they started a Web forum for people to post especially interesting or puzzling galaxies, which is where I found out about the project," Keel said.
After using observations of dust to measure the history of star birth within the Universe, Keel said he asked the team for more images of overlapping galaxies.
"After seeing some good overlapping galaxies for dust investigations go by, I got the 'zookeeper's' permission to post an official request. And so began the flood," Keel said.
Keel said many people have replied and sent in over 800 total images.
Keel said he has always been interested in astronomy.
"I have a photo of me about age 4 in front of a touring Mercury spacecraft," Keel said. "By the time I was in junior high school, I was hooked, mowing yards for a summer to buy a 6-inch telescope that I had until last year."
Though there are many new scientific studies like Zoo Galaxy, Keel said growing up in the 1960s is probably what led to his interest in space.
"It may have helped that the space race of the 1960s was in full swing then, so scientific topics were all in the air in a way one hardly sees today," Keel said.
Keel said his main focus concerning astronomy lies in galaxy formation.
"Most of my work has had to do with galaxies in one way or another - how they interact, how collisions drive the birth of stars, the demographics of their central black holes, how they've changed with time," Keel said.
Because of his work, Keel said he has had the opportunity to view much in space using ground- and space-based telescopes in Arizona, California, Chile and Russia, as well as the Hubble telescope.
Keel's said his interest in astronomy has continued to grow through his participation with Galaxy Zoo.
"I've been fascinated by the breadth of public participation," Keel said. "Something like 110,000 people have signed up for [Galaxy Zoo] so that the first-round project is almost finished and Galaxy Zoo 2 is in the works for next month," Keel said.
While Keel contributes to the community through his dedication to the University, he also works to better everyone's understanding of science.
"Trying to give back to the community, I've written tutorials about galaxy spectra and contributed other bits," Keel said.
Not only is the study of science improving through the use of the Internet, but communities now have access to a database of astronomical proportions, he said.
"The discussion board shows a gratifying number of people keenly interested in learning more about my favorite astronomical objects," Keel said.
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