Radio Galaxy Zoo Talk

Help, Jean!

  • dosey by dosey

    Hello Jean,

    FIRSTJ160748.2+091502

    I am trying to get to grips with this project but I am confused in the extreme!
    What I have just written in 'follow' explains, but I was afraid the comments were all 2years old there and the project was not still running.

    The example here shows me what you marked as radio but on my laptop the corresponding IR source is not ringed so presumably was 1) 'no IR or
    2)an IR so big that it is either originating radio from a tiny portion of itself or
    3) it is obscuring a source more distant and behind or
    4) is the radio contour the result of an intermittent radio burst shot out like a bullet from somewhere else?

    Sorry to be so dumb!

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate in response to dosey's comment.

    Hi dosey,

    If you move the slider all the way to the right, you'll see a big white blob, in the center, with four 'compass points'. On its left-hand side is some grey contour lines, marking a rather odd-looking shape.

    If you move the slider all the way to the left, you see black, with some blue mottling, and in the center a white blob, outlined and with contour lines which are just the same as in the 'IR view'. This is the radio source we are asked to associate with an IR 'host'. It's entirely possible that it's two (or more) separate radio sources, which just happen to overlap to some extent.

    Whether you think there's just one source (host) for the radio emission, or two, or more, is your judgement. Myself, I think there are two.

    What's a challenge in fields like this is "What IR source do I mark?" After all, the radio emission is entirely within a giant white (IR) blob! 😮

    Here's what I do in these kinds of fields: I mark the spot - yellow circle - where I think the host(s) is/are. Yes, it/they will be entirely within the giant white blob. And yes, when the astronomers running this project come to try to associate my marks with an IR source, they're going to have some difficulties, and maybe ambiguities that they can't resolve. So be it. Perhaps data from other IR surveys, or from other WISE bands, might help them find an unambiguous IR source very close to where I put my mark. Perhaps not. Perhaps my choices are 'wrong', in the sense that - with far better data - the host(s) of this radio emission is/are quite different.

    The point is that I think I've done as best I can, as a citizen scientist, with the data I have to hand.

    And that's all we can do, I think, in RGZ ... use our best judgement as to where we think the host of the radio emission is ...

    Hope this helps, and happy hunting! 😃

    Posted

  • ivywong by ivywong scientist, admin

    Thanks heaps JeanTate!

    Posted