#GalaxyCruise: Malaysian citizen astronomers rank 4th with over 40,000 classification of galaxies

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia emerged as the 4th country with the most participation with over 40,000 galaxies classified in the citizen science Galaxy Cruise project launched earlier this year in January by Apadilangit, Universe Awareness Malaysia in collaboration with the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ).

“The total number of galaxies successfully classified by our citizen astronomers in Malaysia was 40,589. This is an exciting achievement because we (Malaysia) were able to reach that just within one week as part of the ‘Classify 1000 Galaxies in 1 Month’ campaign,” said Hafez Murtza, the founder of the astronomy and space science outreach organisation, Apadilangit; Universe Awareness Malaysia.

The announcement was made by Hafez Murtza and Amirul Hazim of Apadilangit during the virtual launch of the second edition of the Galaxy Cruise project by Professor Emerita Datuk Seri Dr Mazlan Othman on Saturday (July 31) where the public can participate and set sail again for the cosmic ocean during the entire month of August.

During the launch, Professor Mazlan called for more members of the public to become amateur astronomers and take part in citizen science projects such as this for it helps to fill data gaps and build meaningful relationships between the public, communities and professional researchers in solving a problem or making new discoveries.

Apadilangit together with Professor Mazlan has set a target of 200,000 galaxies for Malaysians to classify in this one month-long project.

Amirul added “we hope the interest in STEM is further sparked among those participating and that they can further appreciate the beauty of the night sky and admire the grandeur of the universe”.

Professor Saeko added that the COVID-19 pandemic has opened up new virtual platforms for people to learn and explore and hopes that more people can find the silver lining in this current situation and will benefit from projects like this.

Students, teachers and members of the public can visit Apadilangit website and social media sites to find out more about this project.