Identification of low surface brightness tidal features in galaxies using convolutional neural networks
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press (OUP) 483:3 (2019) 2968-2982
Machine Learning for the Zwicky Transient Facility
PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF THE PACIFIC 131:997 (2019) ARTN 038002
Gas Jet Morphology and the Very Rapidly Increasing Rotation Period of Comet 41P/Tuttle–Giacobini–Kresák
The Astronomical Journal, Volume 157, Number 3
Abstract:
We present results from our 47 night imaging campaign of Comet 41P/Tuttle–Giacobini–Kresák conducted from Lowell Observatory between 2017 February 16 and July 2. Coma morphology revealed gas jets, whose appearance and motion as a function of time yielded the rotation period and other properties. All narrowband CN images exhibited either one or two jets; one jet appeared as a partial face-on spiral with clockwise rotation, while the second jet evolved from a side-on corkscrew, through face-on, to corkscrew again, with only a slow evolution throughout the apparition due to progressive viewing geometry changes. A total of 78 period determinations were made over a 7 week interval, yielding a smooth and accelerating rotation period starting at 24 hr (March 21 and 22) and passing 48 hr on April 28. While this is by far the fastest rate of change ever measured for a comet nucleus, the torque required is readily within what can exist given likely properties of the nucleus. If the torque remained constant, we estimate that the nucleus could have stopped rotating and/or begun to tumble as soon as only 2 months following perihelion and will certainly reach this stage by early in the next apparition. Working backward in time, Tuttle–Giacobini–Kresák would have been rotating near its rotational breakup velocity three to four orbits earlier, suggesting that its extreme 7 mag outburst observed in 2001 might have been caused by a partial fragmentation at that time, as might the pair of 1973 8 mag outbursts if there had been an earlier spin-down and spin-up cycle.
Citizen science frontiers: Efficiency, engagement, and serendipitous discovery with human-machine systems.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 116:6 (2019) 1902-1909
Abstract:
Citizen science has proved to be a unique and effective tool in helping science and society cope with the ever-growing data rates and volumes that characterize the modern research landscape. It also serves a critical role in engaging the public with research in a direct, authentic fashion and by doing so promotes a better understanding of the processes of science. To take full advantage of the onslaught of data being experienced across the disciplines, it is essential that citizen science platforms leverage the complementary strengths of humans and machines. This Perspectives piece explores the issues encountered in designing human-machine systems optimized for both efficiency and volunteer engagement, while striving to safeguard and encourage opportunities for serendipitous discovery. We discuss case studies from Zooniverse, a large online citizen science platform, and show that combining human and machine classifications can efficiently produce results superior to those of either one alone and how smart task allocation can lead to further efficiencies in the system. While these examples make clear the promise of human-machine integration within an online citizen science system, we then explore in detail how system design choices can inadvertently lower volunteer engagement, create exclusionary practices, and reduce opportunity for serendipitous discovery. Throughout we investigate the tensions that arise when designing a human-machine system serving the dual goals of carrying out research in the most efficient manner possible while empowering a broad community to authentically engage in this research.K2-288Bb: A Small Temperate Planet in a Low-mass Binary System Discovered by Citizen Scientists
ASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL 157:2 (2019) ARTN 40