Help us uncover the hidden birthplaces of stars!
The PERYSCOPE project seeks to understand the properties of of young star-forming regions. Most stars form together with other stars; that is, stars are typically born with many “siblings.” Volunteers who participated in the Milky Way Project (MWP) noticed objects they named “yellowballs,” from their roundish “yellow” appearance in infrared images. Yellowballs (or YBs) aren’t really yellow – they just appear that way in the representative red-green-blue color scheme that was used to depict three different wavelengths (or “colors”) of infrared light. YBs likely represent young clusters of stars that are still in the process of forming. Our research team is interested in learning more about the physical environments of YBs, and we need support from volunteers to help us measure the amount of light coming from these objects. We have developed an activity for high school or college introductory astronomy courses that allows students to contribute to our research.
We designed the PERYSCOPE Project to provide "Astro-101-level" students with the opportunity to work with real data. PERYSCOPE enables students to learn basic astronomical concepts, while empowering them to participate in the actual process of science.