Galaxy Zoo

If you watched television at any time over the last 35+ years, you probably saw a certain show (or one of it's derivations) that would boldly go where no one has gone before. I'm not a Trekkie by any stretch, but I enjoyed much of the Star Trek franchise.

How would you like to explore the galaxies? No, it won't be on the Enterprise, but you'd be an explorer nonetheless.

Astronomers at Oxford University are enlisting ordinary internet users in a project called the "Galaxy Zoo." They hope this project will help them unravel mysteries by peering into corners of the universe that no human has seen before. They aim to categorize a million galaxies out beyond the Milky Way - basically, it will be the largest galactic census and a major astronomical advance... but still just a sliver of the more than 100 billion galaxies astronomers believe are in the observable universe.

Yes, they provide training - and, no, you don't have to be an astrophysicist or brainiac astronomer to qualify. In fact, you don't even need a degree.

The Galaxy Zoo team hopes at least 30,000 people will log in to their website, peruse pictures of galaxies from the SDSS, and determine whether the galaxies are elliptical or spiral--and, if spiral, which way they seem to be spinning.

The SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey) is a fantastic new technology that's given astronomers many more galaxies to study - in fact, too many. That's where the 30,000 research assistants come in.

If you are interested, slip on those Mr. Spock ears, set your phasers to stun, and go over to GalaxyZoo.org.