A peer-reviewed article, Crowdsourcing Star-Formation Research and the Power of Participatory Science, was published as a part of the 2024 Astronomy Prize Awardees Collection in the Springer Astrophysics and Space Science Journal. The article details the Milky Way Project’s contributions to our understanding of star formation and describes how Zooniverse projects have been used to engage different communities, such as seminaries, youth, and interfaith groups, in participatory (“people-powered”) science.

While sorting through images of objects in our galaxy, citizen scientists identified thousands of mysterious objects that have come to be known as “yellowballs.” The images containing yellowballs were then compiled into a catalog by a team of scientists. Using this catalog, they discovered that yellowballs are spherical star-forming regions that appear yellow in infrared images and are primarily associated with intermediate-mass stars. This is important because it provides a crucial missing link between high- and low-mass star forming regions, according to a paper published in February with Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist and Senior Education and Communication Specialist, **Grace Wolf-Chase** as a contributor. “Just as solid-state physicists can learn about the nature of materials by studying phase transitions, astrophysicists can learn about the nature of star formation by identifying and studying objects that trace an analogous ‘phase transition’ between low- and high-mass star formation,” according to the paper. Historically, scientific investigations into this transitional realm have been hampered by a lack of data on intermediate star-forming regions. The catalog, dubbed MIRION and short for Mid-InfraRed Interstellar Objects and Nebulae, was created to fill this observational gap. It includes more than 6,000 yellowball observations and was published along with the paper. “What we’re trying to do is simplify the number of observations we have to make in order to understand the properties and characteristics of yellowballs,” Wolf-Chase said. “It’s particularly interesting to pick out regions that will eventually form massive stars and those that won’t, because we expect to see differences in the way planetary systems form along with each.” The citizen scientists who identified the yellowballs were participating in the Milky Way Project, co-created by Wolf-Chase and hosted by Zooniverse, a website that connects volunteers to research projects. This is just one of many examples of important science that can result from collaborating with the public, she said. Now, Wolf-Chase is also working on a project called PERYSCOPE, People Enabling Research: A Yellowball Survey of the Colors of Protostellar Environments. This project is aimed at teaching different concepts of astronomy while providing students taking introductory-level astronomy classes with research experience. Additionally, through the work of citizen scientists, Wolf-Chase is working on a large statistical study to see if it is possible to associate the ages and physical properties of star-forming regions through the use of infrared observations, along with figuring out the type of conditions within a star cluster that lead to forming massive stars and the conditions that lead to smaller stars. “The volunteers who participated in the Milky Way Project, who identified all of these objects for us in the first place, that was a critical starting point,” she said.

While sorting through images of objects in our galaxy, citizen scientists identified thousands of mysterious objects that have come to be known as “yellowballs.” The images containing yellowballs were then compiled into a catalog by a ... Read More

arXiv abstract link