TORONTO, June 27, 2008 -- A York University professor is calling on amateur star-gazers to help locate a needle in an astronomical haystack.

 

Professor Pat Hall hopes to uncover new astronomical phenomena amongst the 20,000 unknown objects detected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, an international scientific collaboration that has produced the most detailed map of our sky, to-date.

 

The survey, which wraps up next month, digitally photographed one quarter of the sky, pinpointing more than 100 million celestial objects; computer software classified 99 percent of these. Human eyes – many pairs – are needed to inspect the 20,000 objects the software missed.

“A new discovery may well lie hidden within the unclassified one percent,” says Hall, a professor in York’s Department of Physics & Astronomy. “We can still classify these objects, but only through visual inspection, and that’s an enormous undertaking.”

He’ll extend this invitation to members of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) during their annual convention, being held at York University from June 27 – July 1, 2008.

 

Volunteers will join a Google group with links to the survey images, spectra, and other information on each object. After inspecting an object, any group member can submit a classification for that object, or start a discussion if they've found something intriguing or confusing.

 

Hall acknowledges it’s tedious work; most of these “unknowns” will turn out to be stars, galaxies or quasars missed due to bugs in the survey’s software. But there’s reason for optimism: last summer, two high school students under his tutelage uncovered a previously-overlooked star within 100 light years of the sun, and a burst of light of unknown origin.

 

Hall will give a presentation on the Sloan survey, on Saturday, June 28, as part of the convention, which is co-hosted by York’s Department of Physics & Astronomy and the Toronto, Mississauga and Hamilton RASC chapters. The convention will bring together more than 200 amateur and professional astronomers, and will feature a lecture by world-renowned astronomer, Dr. Phil Plait, and tours of the York University observatory.

 

For more information on the RASC annual convention, visit: http://www.rasc.ca/ga2008/

 

For more information on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, visit: http://www.sdss.org/

 

Media contact:
Melissa Hughes, Media Relations, York University: 416 736 2100 x22097, mehughes@yorku.ca

York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city. The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 200,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 11 faculties and 24 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries. This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges. York University is an autonomous, not-for-profit corporation.

-30-