Galaxy Identification in the Taurus Field

This project is not directly related to the IC 2118 research. However, as with the IC 2118 project, it is an attempt to involve high school students in meaningful, real-time, astronomical research. A 44-square-degree area of the Taurus cloud was mapped by the Spitzer Space Telescope using the IRAC and MIPS cameras. The primary reason for mapping the Taurus region is to identify YSO's. There are many resolved galaxies in this field that have been captured. Having trained students analyze these images and identify galaxies serves two purposes. First it will allow the primary research team to more easily distinguish candidate Taurus association members from resolved galaxies. And second, where galaxies lack classification data, students will assist by providing thumbnail images at multiple wavelengths and offer a Hubble Sequence classification recommendation based on their analysis of the data.

The Spitzer data is publicly available, because the Taurus program is a Legacy project, but this project also has many many Gigabytes of supporting optical data, which is proprietary, and which the team has generously agreed to share with the students.

This area of the Wiki is devoted to information and discussions concerning this ongoing analysis of the Taurus field.

Useful links:

• General description of Legacy projects in general
• Available legacy products for the Taurus team
• General, simple page on Taurus project
• General introductory information on galaxy classification using Spitzer data

Click on the 'discussion' tab above to see the conversations about this topic.

Go back to IC 2118 Current Research Activities.