StarGazing Live is a program run over 3 consecutive days by the BBC at the beginning of each year. This year, it ran from Jan 8th-10th (other things have prevented me from writing out it this week).
The programs cover a range of topics in the world of astronomy and are co-presented live by Prof. Brian Cox and comedian Dara O’Briain (who has a science background in case you were wondering!).
The main programs were followed by half-hour shows where the presenters and a panel discussed questions sent in by the audience via Twitter or email.
It’s a program I’d like to see appear each month but the logistics of it being hosted from Jodrell Bank and getting the experts together probably preclude that possibility.
Each year, the audience are asked to participate in a citizen astronomy effort to help astronomy researchers sort through information on a specific topic. Last year, people looked through images looking for new exoplanets. And, in fact, one was found and confirmed and two audience members had the new planet named after them.
This year they were looking for volunteers to scour images from Mars in an effort to identify unusual features or phenomena, particularly Martian fans which are indicative of active geysers on the planet. These were images that had never been seen before. And, true to form, the audience members who took part did find a few new things on Mars. While computers may be great at crunching numbers, there’s still nothing better for pattern recognition than a real person looking at a picture! By the end of the third night, volunteers had scanned images from an area the size of Holland!
This image shows some great ‘spiders’, with frost around their edges. There’s lots to see, and the audience of Stargazing Live will helped blast through the data really quickly.
While StarGazing Live has finished its 3-programme run this year (you’ll find a selection of snippets from the programmes below), people are still able to volunteer their services to the Planet Four website and help with looking deeper at Mars and its terrain.
An Artist’s conception of sediment-laden jets that shoot into the polar sky from the south polar ice cap as southern spring begins. Credit: Ron Miller/Arizona State University
Filed under: Mars
