Yeah!  Thanks to Galaxy Zoo I became involved with Planethunters dot Org.  Now I am actually on a scientific paper about a new planet discovery!

http://blogs.zooniverse.org/planethunters/2012/03/08/new-planet-hunters-co-discoveries/

(It's http://talk.planethunters.org/objects/APH21098239, the third one, I'm number 8 on the list - the same number as Ovechkin and Dave Schultz!)

To think that I would tell my grandchildren that "I remember seeing Hanny's post about the Voorwerp before anybody had responded to her"  (I had no idea what it was, either, and wanted to see what others thought) and now I, a simple computer user, have become a (very small) part of scientific history!

But there is so much more to see and do - Rock On!

Quote from: thaumielx72 on January 18, 2012, 12:23:18 pm

Coffee for me, I'm a Yank through and through.  Thought I'd take a well deserved day off from work today and help PlanetHunters reach their goal for BBC Stargazing Live.  I'll have to google the show and see if it can be found online somewhere (since I don't think I can make it to England today...).   

Good afternoon Zoo and Thaumielx72.

You won't have to google the show.

If you go to the BBC website (www.bbc.co.uk)  and look for iPlayer on the top toolbar and then do a seach for 'Skygazing Live', you will find this link -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00mlr4k/Stargazing_LIVE_Series_2_Episode_2/

Thanks, John - but that page says I have to be in the UK to see the video.  Ah, well...

Wow!  Super Cool!

I forget where but I am sure I read an article a few years ago saying that it was previously theorised that there was no way a binary star system could support planets - but it turned out there are a few!

I think so Alice!  In fact, I just posted on the Planet Hunters forums about exactly that.  Here is the page -  the post is about third or fourth from the bottom.

There is far more information on the Blog

The Blog has been just excellent for us zooites for years now but this is the mainstream press (namely Drudge Report).  They will almost certainly bring in some new people probably including some youngsters with a fresh interest in Astronomy and/or "citizen science."

Here is a less well-known web site.

A Quote:  "The stars in the object are now being born outside any galaxy, meaning any future civilizations living around one of those stars will have one of the most insane views in the cosmos - an almost starless night sky, with the view dominated by the hulking view of galaxy IC 2497, the far distant object that made their existence possible."

 

More news.

...and here.

Hanny's Voorwerp just keeps on being interesting.

 

What an exciting time to be alive!  You can almost feel the discoveries just waiting around the corner.

Yes, there are still some legitimate bugs to be worked out but progress is definitely being made.

It's good to have the head programmer so obviously involved.

And, Geoff, he has promised a MACOS client as soon as he gets these other issues resolved, so keep your eyes open.