Zooniverse

Abstract:

We investigate the development of scientific content knowledge of volunteers participating in online citizen science projects in the Zooniverse (www.zooniverse.org). We use econometric methods to test how measures of project participation relate to success in a science quiz, controlling for factors known to correlate with scientific knowledge. Citizen scientists believe they are learning about both the content and processes of science through their participation. We don’t directly test the latter, but we find evidence to support the former - that more actively engaged participants perform better in a project-specific science knowledge quiz, even after controlling for their general science knowledge. We interpret this as evidence of learning of science content inspired by participation in online citizen science.

Abstract:

We present a series of results from a clustering analysis of the first data release of the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) Deep Extragalactic Observations (VIDEO) survey. VIDEO is the only survey currently capable of probing the bulk of stellar mass in galaxies at redshifts corresponding to the peak of star formation on degree scales. Galaxy clustering is measured with the two-point correlation function, which is calculated using a non-parametric kernel-based density estimator. We use our measurements to investigate the connection between the galaxies and the host dark matter halo using a halo occupation distribution methodology, deriving bias, satellite fractions, and typical host halo masses for stellar masses between 10 9.35 and 10 10.85 M ⊙ , at redshifts 0.5 < z < 1.7. Our results show typical halo mass increasing with stellar mass (with moderate scatter) and bias increasing with stellar mass and redshift consistent with previous studies. We find that the satellite fraction increased towards low redshifts, from ~5 per cent at z ~ 1.5 to ~20 per cent at z ~ 0.6. We combine our results to derive the stellar mass-to-halo mass ratio for both satellites and centrals over a range of halo masses and find the peak corresponding to the halo mass with maximum star formation efficiency to be ~2 × 10 12 M ⊙ , finding no evidence for evolution.

Abstract:

We present high resolution observations of a sample of 75 K2 targets from Campaigns 1-3 using speckle interferometry on the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope and adaptive optics (AO) imaging at the Keck II telescope. The median SOAR $I$-band and Keck $K_s$-band detection limits at 1'' were $\Delta m_{I}=4.4$ mag and $\Delta m_{K_s}=6.1$ mag, respectively. This sample includes 37 stars likely to host planets, 32 targets likely to be EBs, and 6 other targets previously labeled as likely planetary false positives. We find nine likely physically bound companion stars within 3'' of three candidate transiting exoplanet host stars and six likely eclipsing binaries (EB). Six of the nine detected companions are new discoveries, one of them associated with a planet candidate (EPIC 206061524). Among the EB candidates, companions were only found near the shortest period ones ($P<3$ days), which is in line with previous results showing high multiplicity near short-period binary stars. This high resolution data, including both the detected companions and the limits on potential unseen companions, will be useful in future planet vetting and stellar multiplicity rate studies for planets and binaries.

Abstract:

We discuss a potential MeerKAT campaign to shed more light into the nature of the optically identified Blue Early Type galaxies (BETGs), a subset of the so-called "green valley" population, quenching star formation on time scales of less than 0.25 Gyr and the likely progenitor population of post-starburst galaxies. Employing a WSRT pilot survey of four galaxies, we have shown that BETGs have radio properties that fit to a mechanical removal of star forming material, potentially by AGN activity, as in particular we found H I to be removed farther and farther from the centre of the galaxies with older and older age of the stellar population. We argue that MeerKAT is the optimal instrument to conduct a pointed survey of BETGs to become more conclusive about this specific transition state, which is so rare that it will not be detected at a high enough rate in planned sufficiently sensitive large-sky surveys, for which we expect a total detection number of the order of 12 objects.