Loading…

Bursts from Space: MeerKAT - The first citizen science project dedicated to commensal radio transients

The newest generation of radio telescopes are able to survey large areas with high sensitivity and cadence, producing data volumes that require new methods to better understand the transient sky. Here we describe the results from the first citizen science project dedicated to commensal radio transie...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2023-04
Main Authors: Andersson, Alex, Lintott, Chris, Fender, Rob, Bright, Joe, Carotenuto, Francesco, Driessen, Laura, Espinasse, Mathilde, Gaseahalwe, Kelebogile, Heywood, Ian, Alexander J van der Horst, Motta, Sara, Rhodes, Lauren, Tremou, Evangelia, Williams, David R A, Woudt, Patrick, Zhang, Xian, Bloemen, Steven, Groot, Paul, Vreeswijk, Paul, Giarratana, Stefano, Saikia, Payaswini, Andersson, Jonas, Lizzeth Ruiz Arroyo, Baert, Loïc, Baumann, Matthew, Domainko, Wilfried, Eschweiler, Thorsten, sythe, Tim, Gaudenzi, Sauro, Grenier, Rachel Ann, Iannone, Davide, Lahoz, Karla, Melville, Kyle J, De Sousa Nascimento, Marianne, Navarro, Leticia, Parthasarathi, Sai, Piilonen, Rahman, Najma, Smith, Jeffrey, Stewart, B, Newton Temoke, Tworek, Chloe, Whittle, Isabelle
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
cited_by
cites
container_end_page
container_issue
container_start_page
container_title arXiv.org
container_volume
creator Andersson, Alex
Lintott, Chris
Fender, Rob
Bright, Joe
Carotenuto, Francesco
Driessen, Laura
Espinasse, Mathilde
Gaseahalwe, Kelebogile
Heywood, Ian
Alexander J van der Horst
Motta, Sara
Rhodes, Lauren
Tremou, Evangelia
Williams, David R A
Woudt, Patrick
Zhang, Xian
Bloemen, Steven
Groot, Paul
Vreeswijk, Paul
Giarratana, Stefano
Saikia, Payaswini
Andersson, Jonas
Lizzeth Ruiz Arroyo
Baert, Loïc
Baumann, Matthew
Domainko, Wilfried
Eschweiler, Thorsten
sythe, Tim
Gaudenzi, Sauro
Grenier, Rachel Ann
Iannone, Davide
Lahoz, Karla
Melville, Kyle J
De Sousa Nascimento, Marianne
Navarro, Leticia
Parthasarathi, Sai
Piilonen
Rahman, Najma
Smith, Jeffrey
Stewart, B
Newton Temoke
Tworek, Chloe
Whittle, Isabelle
description The newest generation of radio telescopes are able to survey large areas with high sensitivity and cadence, producing data volumes that require new methods to better understand the transient sky. Here we describe the results from the first citizen science project dedicated to commensal radio transients, using data from the MeerKAT telescope with weekly cadence. Bursts from Space: MeerKAT was launched late in 2021 and received ~89000 classifications from over 1000 volunteers in 3 months. Our volunteers discovered 142 new variable sources which, along with the known transients in our fields, allowed us to estimate that at least 2.1 per cent of radio sources are varying at 1.28 GHz at the sampled cadence and sensitivity, in line with previous work. We provide the full catalogue of these sources, the largest of candidate radio variables to date. Transient sources found with archival counterparts include a pulsar (B1845-01) and an OH maser star (OH 30.1-0.7), in addition to the recovery of known stellar flares and X-ray binary jets in our observations. Data from the MeerLICHT optical telescope, along with estimates of long time-scale variability induced by scintillation, imply that the majority of the new variables are active galactic nuclei. This tells us that citizen scientists can discover phenomena varying on time-scales from weeks to several years. The success both in terms of volunteer engagement and scientific merit warrants the continued development of the project, whilst we use the classifications from volunteers to develop machine learning techniques for finding transients.
doi_str_mv 10.48550/arxiv.2304.14157
format article
fullrecord <record><control><sourceid>proquest</sourceid><recordid>TN_cdi_proquest_journals_2807207393</recordid><sourceformat>XML</sourceformat><sourcesystem>PC</sourcesystem><sourcerecordid>2807207393</sourcerecordid><originalsourceid>FETCH-LOGICAL-a957-c52271c457d242b597ce055343502f1c8d1a0d2ef71f50e65226e86c2fc0df063</originalsourceid><addsrcrecordid>eNotjsFKAzEURYMgWGo_wN0D11NfXpLJ1F0tasWKC2dfYvKCU9qZmqQifr0Durqbwz1HiCuJc90YgzcufXdfc1Ko51JLY8_EhJSSVaOJLsQs5x0iUm3JGDUR8e6UcskQ03CAt6PzfAsvzOl52UIF7QdD7EYAfFe6H-4h-457z3BMw459gcCh865wgDKAHw4H7rPbQ3KhG6Ak1-eRL_lSnEe3zzz736loH-7b1bravD4-rZabyi2MrbwhstJrYwNpejcL6xnHTK0MUpS-CdJhII5WRoNcj3jNTe0pegwRazUV13-3Y97niXPZ7oZT6kfjlhq0hFYtlPoFn6BXeQ</addsrcrecordid><sourcetype>Aggregation Database</sourcetype><iscdi>true</iscdi><recordtype>article</recordtype><pqid>2807207393</pqid></control><display><type>article</type><title>Bursts from Space: MeerKAT - The first citizen science project dedicated to commensal radio transients</title><source>Publicly Available Content Database</source><creator>Andersson, Alex ; Lintott, Chris ; Fender, Rob ; Bright, Joe ; Carotenuto, Francesco ; Driessen, Laura ; Espinasse, Mathilde ; Gaseahalwe, Kelebogile ; Heywood, Ian ; Alexander J van der Horst ; Motta, Sara ; Rhodes, Lauren ; Tremou, Evangelia ; Williams, David R A ; Woudt, Patrick ; Zhang, Xian ; Bloemen, Steven ; Groot, Paul ; Vreeswijk, Paul ; Giarratana, Stefano ; Saikia, Payaswini ; Andersson, Jonas ; Lizzeth Ruiz Arroyo ; Baert, Loïc ; Baumann, Matthew ; Domainko, Wilfried ; Eschweiler, Thorsten ; sythe, Tim ; Gaudenzi, Sauro ; Grenier, Rachel Ann ; Iannone, Davide ; Lahoz, Karla ; Melville, Kyle J ; De Sousa Nascimento, Marianne ; Navarro, Leticia ; Parthasarathi, Sai ; Piilonen ; Rahman, Najma ; Smith, Jeffrey ; Stewart, B ; Newton Temoke ; Tworek, Chloe ; Whittle, Isabelle</creator><creatorcontrib>Andersson, Alex ; Lintott, Chris ; Fender, Rob ; Bright, Joe ; Carotenuto, Francesco ; Driessen, Laura ; Espinasse, Mathilde ; Gaseahalwe, Kelebogile ; Heywood, Ian ; Alexander J van der Horst ; Motta, Sara ; Rhodes, Lauren ; Tremou, Evangelia ; Williams, David R A ; Woudt, Patrick ; Zhang, Xian ; Bloemen, Steven ; Groot, Paul ; Vreeswijk, Paul ; Giarratana, Stefano ; Saikia, Payaswini ; Andersson, Jonas ; Lizzeth Ruiz Arroyo ; Baert, Loïc ; Baumann, Matthew ; Domainko, Wilfried ; Eschweiler, Thorsten ; sythe, Tim ; Gaudenzi, Sauro ; Grenier, Rachel Ann ; Iannone, Davide ; Lahoz, Karla ; Melville, Kyle J ; De Sousa Nascimento, Marianne ; Navarro, Leticia ; Parthasarathi, Sai ; Piilonen ; Rahman, Najma ; Smith, Jeffrey ; Stewart, B ; Newton Temoke ; Tworek, Chloe ; Whittle, Isabelle</creatorcontrib><description>The newest generation of radio telescopes are able to survey large areas with high sensitivity and cadence, producing data volumes that require new methods to better understand the transient sky. Here we describe the results from the first citizen science project dedicated to commensal radio transients, using data from the MeerKAT telescope with weekly cadence. Bursts from Space: MeerKAT was launched late in 2021 and received ~89000 classifications from over 1000 volunteers in 3 months. Our volunteers discovered 142 new variable sources which, along with the known transients in our fields, allowed us to estimate that at least 2.1 per cent of radio sources are varying at 1.28 GHz at the sampled cadence and sensitivity, in line with previous work. We provide the full catalogue of these sources, the largest of candidate radio variables to date. Transient sources found with archival counterparts include a pulsar (B1845-01) and an OH maser star (OH 30.1-0.7), in addition to the recovery of known stellar flares and X-ray binary jets in our observations. Data from the MeerLICHT optical telescope, along with estimates of long time-scale variability induced by scintillation, imply that the majority of the new variables are active galactic nuclei. This tells us that citizen scientists can discover phenomena varying on time-scales from weeks to several years. The success both in terms of volunteer engagement and scientific merit warrants the continued development of the project, whilst we use the classifications from volunteers to develop machine learning techniques for finding transients.</description><identifier>EISSN: 2331-8422</identifier><identifier>DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2304.14157</identifier><language>eng</language><publisher>Ithaca: Cornell University Library, arXiv.org</publisher><subject>Active galactic nuclei ; Binary stars ; Bursts ; Classification ; Machine learning ; Pulsars ; Radio sources (astronomy) ; Radio telescopes ; Sensitivity ; Stellar flares ; Telescopes ; X ray binaries ; X ray stars</subject><ispartof>arXiv.org, 2023-04</ispartof><rights>2023. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.</rights><oa>free_for_read</oa><woscitedreferencessubscribed>false</woscitedreferencessubscribed></display><links><openurl>$$Topenurl_article</openurl><openurlfulltext>$$Topenurlfull_article</openurlfulltext><thumbnail>$$Tsyndetics_thumb_exl</thumbnail><linktohtml>$$Uhttps://www.proquest.com/docview/2807207393?pq-origsite=primo$$EHTML$$P50$$Gproquest$$Hfree_for_read</linktohtml><link.rule.ids>780,784,25753,27925,37012,44590</link.rule.ids></links><search><creatorcontrib>Andersson, Alex</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Lintott, Chris</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Fender, Rob</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Bright, Joe</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Carotenuto, Francesco</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Driessen, Laura</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Espinasse, Mathilde</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Gaseahalwe, Kelebogile</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Heywood, Ian</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Alexander J van der Horst</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Motta, Sara</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Rhodes, Lauren</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Tremou, Evangelia</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Williams, David R A</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Woudt, Patrick</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Zhang, Xian</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Bloemen, Steven</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Groot, Paul</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Vreeswijk, Paul</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Giarratana, Stefano</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Saikia, Payaswini</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Andersson, Jonas</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Lizzeth Ruiz Arroyo</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Baert, Loïc</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Baumann, Matthew</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Domainko, Wilfried</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Eschweiler, Thorsten</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>sythe, Tim</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Gaudenzi, Sauro</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Grenier, Rachel Ann</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Iannone, Davide</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Lahoz, Karla</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Melville, Kyle J</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>De Sousa Nascimento, Marianne</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Navarro, Leticia</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Parthasarathi, Sai</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Piilonen</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Rahman, Najma</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Smith, Jeffrey</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Stewart, B</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Newton Temoke</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Tworek, Chloe</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Whittle, Isabelle</creatorcontrib><title>Bursts from Space: MeerKAT - The first citizen science project dedicated to commensal radio transients</title><title>arXiv.org</title><description>The newest generation of radio telescopes are able to survey large areas with high sensitivity and cadence, producing data volumes that require new methods to better understand the transient sky. Here we describe the results from the first citizen science project dedicated to commensal radio transients, using data from the MeerKAT telescope with weekly cadence. Bursts from Space: MeerKAT was launched late in 2021 and received ~89000 classifications from over 1000 volunteers in 3 months. Our volunteers discovered 142 new variable sources which, along with the known transients in our fields, allowed us to estimate that at least 2.1 per cent of radio sources are varying at 1.28 GHz at the sampled cadence and sensitivity, in line with previous work. We provide the full catalogue of these sources, the largest of candidate radio variables to date. Transient sources found with archival counterparts include a pulsar (B1845-01) and an OH maser star (OH 30.1-0.7), in addition to the recovery of known stellar flares and X-ray binary jets in our observations. Data from the MeerLICHT optical telescope, along with estimates of long time-scale variability induced by scintillation, imply that the majority of the new variables are active galactic nuclei. This tells us that citizen scientists can discover phenomena varying on time-scales from weeks to several years. The success both in terms of volunteer engagement and scientific merit warrants the continued development of the project, whilst we use the classifications from volunteers to develop machine learning techniques for finding transients.</description><subject>Active galactic nuclei</subject><subject>Binary stars</subject><subject>Bursts</subject><subject>Classification</subject><subject>Machine learning</subject><subject>Pulsars</subject><subject>Radio sources (astronomy)</subject><subject>Radio telescopes</subject><subject>Sensitivity</subject><subject>Stellar flares</subject><subject>Telescopes</subject><subject>X ray binaries</subject><subject>X ray stars</subject><issn>2331-8422</issn><fulltext>true</fulltext><rsrctype>article</rsrctype><creationdate>2023</creationdate><recordtype>article</recordtype><sourceid>PIMPY</sourceid><recordid>eNotjsFKAzEURYMgWGo_wN0D11NfXpLJ1F0tasWKC2dfYvKCU9qZmqQifr0Durqbwz1HiCuJc90YgzcufXdfc1Ko51JLY8_EhJSSVaOJLsQs5x0iUm3JGDUR8e6UcskQ03CAt6PzfAsvzOl52UIF7QdD7EYAfFe6H-4h-457z3BMw459gcCh865wgDKAHw4H7rPbQ3KhG6Ak1-eRL_lSnEe3zzz736loH-7b1bravD4-rZabyi2MrbwhstJrYwNpejcL6xnHTK0MUpS-CdJhII5WRoNcj3jNTe0pegwRazUV13-3Y97niXPZ7oZT6kfjlhq0hFYtlPoFn6BXeQ</recordid><startdate>20230427</startdate><enddate>20230427</enddate><creator>Andersson, Alex</creator><creator>Lintott, Chris</creator><creator>Fender, Rob</creator><creator>Bright, Joe</creator><creator>Carotenuto, Francesco</creator><creator>Driessen, Laura</creator><creator>Espinasse, Mathilde</creator><creator>Gaseahalwe, Kelebogile</creator><creator>Heywood, Ian</creator><creator>Alexander J van der Horst</creator><creator>Motta, Sara</creator><creator>Rhodes, Lauren</creator><creator>Tremou, Evangelia</creator><creator>Williams, David R A</creator><creator>Woudt, Patrick</creator><creator>Zhang, Xian</creator><creator>Bloemen, Steven</creator><creator>Groot, Paul</creator><creator>Vreeswijk, Paul</creator><creator>Giarratana, Stefano</creator><creator>Saikia, Payaswini</creator><creator>Andersson, Jonas</creator><creator>Lizzeth Ruiz Arroyo</creator><creator>Baert, Loïc</creator><creator>Baumann, Matthew</creator><creator>Domainko, Wilfried</creator><creator>Eschweiler, Thorsten</creator><creator>sythe, Tim</creator><creator>Gaudenzi, Sauro</creator><creator>Grenier, Rachel Ann</creator><creator>Iannone, Davide</creator><creator>Lahoz, Karla</creator><creator>Melville, Kyle J</creator><creator>De Sousa Nascimento, Marianne</creator><creator>Navarro, Leticia</creator><creator>Parthasarathi, Sai</creator><creator>Piilonen</creator><creator>Rahman, Najma</creator><creator>Smith, Jeffrey</creator><creator>Stewart, B</creator><creator>Newton Temoke</creator><creator>Tworek, Chloe</creator><creator>Whittle, Isabelle</creator><general>Cornell University Library, arXiv.org</general><scope>8FE</scope><scope>8FG</scope><scope>ABJCF</scope><scope>ABUWG</scope><scope>AFKRA</scope><scope>AZQEC</scope><scope>BENPR</scope><scope>BGLVJ</scope><scope>CCPQU</scope><scope>DWQXO</scope><scope>HCIFZ</scope><scope>L6V</scope><scope>M7S</scope><scope>PIMPY</scope><scope>PQEST</scope><scope>PQQKQ</scope><scope>PQUKI</scope><scope>PRINS</scope><scope>PTHSS</scope></search><sort><creationdate>20230427</creationdate><title>Bursts from Space: MeerKAT - The first citizen science project dedicated to commensal radio transients</title><author>Andersson, Alex ; Lintott, Chris ; Fender, Rob ; Bright, Joe ; Carotenuto, Francesco ; Driessen, Laura ; Espinasse, Mathilde ; Gaseahalwe, Kelebogile ; Heywood, Ian ; Alexander J van der Horst ; Motta, Sara ; Rhodes, Lauren ; Tremou, Evangelia ; Williams, David R A ; Woudt, Patrick ; Zhang, Xian ; Bloemen, Steven ; Groot, Paul ; Vreeswijk, Paul ; Giarratana, Stefano ; Saikia, Payaswini ; Andersson, Jonas ; Lizzeth Ruiz Arroyo ; Baert, Loïc ; Baumann, Matthew ; Domainko, Wilfried ; Eschweiler, Thorsten ; sythe, Tim ; Gaudenzi, Sauro ; Grenier, Rachel Ann ; Iannone, Davide ; Lahoz, Karla ; Melville, Kyle J ; De Sousa Nascimento, Marianne ; Navarro, Leticia ; Parthasarathi, Sai ; Piilonen ; Rahman, Najma ; Smith, Jeffrey ; Stewart, B ; Newton Temoke ; Tworek, Chloe ; Whittle, Isabelle</author></sort><facets><frbrtype>5</frbrtype><frbrgroupid>cdi_FETCH-LOGICAL-a957-c52271c457d242b597ce055343502f1c8d1a0d2ef71f50e65226e86c2fc0df063</frbrgroupid><rsrctype>articles</rsrctype><prefilter>articles</prefilter><language>eng</language><creationdate>2023</creationdate><topic>Active galactic nuclei</topic><topic>Binary stars</topic><topic>Bursts</topic><topic>Classification</topic><topic>Machine learning</topic><topic>Pulsars</topic><topic>Radio sources (astronomy)</topic><topic>Radio telescopes</topic><topic>Sensitivity</topic><topic>Stellar flares</topic><topic>Telescopes</topic><topic>X ray binaries</topic><topic>X ray stars</topic><toplevel>online_resources</toplevel><creatorcontrib>Andersson, Alex</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Lintott, Chris</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Fender, Rob</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Bright, Joe</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Carotenuto, Francesco</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Driessen, Laura</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Espinasse, Mathilde</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Gaseahalwe, Kelebogile</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Heywood, Ian</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Alexander J van der Horst</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Motta, Sara</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Rhodes, Lauren</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Tremou, Evangelia</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Williams, David R A</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Woudt, Patrick</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Zhang, Xian</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Bloemen, Steven</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Groot, Paul</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Vreeswijk, Paul</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Giarratana, Stefano</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Saikia, Payaswini</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Andersson, Jonas</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Lizzeth Ruiz Arroyo</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Baert, Loïc</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Baumann, Matthew</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Domainko, Wilfried</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Eschweiler, Thorsten</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>sythe, Tim</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Gaudenzi, Sauro</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Grenier, Rachel Ann</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Iannone, Davide</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Lahoz, Karla</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Melville, Kyle J</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>De Sousa Nascimento, Marianne</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Navarro, Leticia</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Parthasarathi, Sai</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Piilonen</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Rahman, Najma</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Smith, Jeffrey</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Stewart, B</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Newton Temoke</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Tworek, Chloe</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Whittle, Isabelle</creatorcontrib><collection>ProQuest SciTech Collection</collection><collection>ProQuest Technology Collection</collection><collection>Materials Science &amp; Engineering Collection</collection><collection>ProQuest Central (Alumni)</collection><collection>ProQuest Central</collection><collection>ProQuest Central Essentials</collection><collection>ProQuest Central</collection><collection>Technology Collection</collection><collection>ProQuest One Community College</collection><collection>ProQuest Central</collection><collection>SciTech Premium Collection</collection><collection>ProQuest Engineering Collection</collection><collection>Engineering Database</collection><collection>Publicly Available Content Database</collection><collection>ProQuest One Academic Eastern Edition (DO NOT USE)</collection><collection>ProQuest One Academic</collection><collection>ProQuest One Academic UKI Edition</collection><collection>ProQuest Central China</collection><collection>Engineering Collection</collection><jtitle>arXiv.org</jtitle></facets><delivery><delcategory>Remote Search Resource</delcategory><fulltext>fulltext</fulltext></delivery><addata><au>Andersson, Alex</au><au>Lintott, Chris</au><au>Fender, Rob</au><au>Bright, Joe</au><au>Carotenuto, Francesco</au><au>Driessen, Laura</au><au>Espinasse, Mathilde</au><au>Gaseahalwe, Kelebogile</au><au>Heywood, Ian</au><au>Alexander J van der Horst</au><au>Motta, Sara</au><au>Rhodes, Lauren</au><au>Tremou, Evangelia</au><au>Williams, David R A</au><au>Woudt, Patrick</au><au>Zhang, Xian</au><au>Bloemen, Steven</au><au>Groot, Paul</au><au>Vreeswijk, Paul</au><au>Giarratana, Stefano</au><au>Saikia, Payaswini</au><au>Andersson, Jonas</au><au>Lizzeth Ruiz Arroyo</au><au>Baert, Loïc</au><au>Baumann, Matthew</au><au>Domainko, Wilfried</au><au>Eschweiler, Thorsten</au><au>sythe, Tim</au><au>Gaudenzi, Sauro</au><au>Grenier, Rachel Ann</au><au>Iannone, Davide</au><au>Lahoz, Karla</au><au>Melville, Kyle J</au><au>De Sousa Nascimento, Marianne</au><au>Navarro, Leticia</au><au>Parthasarathi, Sai</au><au>Piilonen</au><au>Rahman, Najma</au><au>Smith, Jeffrey</au><au>Stewart, B</au><au>Newton Temoke</au><au>Tworek, Chloe</au><au>Whittle, Isabelle</au><format>journal</format><genre>article</genre><ristype>JOUR</ristype><atitle>Bursts from Space: MeerKAT - The first citizen science project dedicated to commensal radio transients</atitle><jtitle>arXiv.org</jtitle><date>2023-04-27</date><risdate>2023</risdate><eissn>2331-8422</eissn><abstract>The newest generation of radio telescopes are able to survey large areas with high sensitivity and cadence, producing data volumes that require new methods to better understand the transient sky. Here we describe the results from the first citizen science project dedicated to commensal radio transients, using data from the MeerKAT telescope with weekly cadence. Bursts from Space: MeerKAT was launched late in 2021 and received ~89000 classifications from over 1000 volunteers in 3 months. Our volunteers discovered 142 new variable sources which, along with the known transients in our fields, allowed us to estimate that at least 2.1 per cent of radio sources are varying at 1.28 GHz at the sampled cadence and sensitivity, in line with previous work. We provide the full catalogue of these sources, the largest of candidate radio variables to date. Transient sources found with archival counterparts include a pulsar (B1845-01) and an OH maser star (OH 30.1-0.7), in addition to the recovery of known stellar flares and X-ray binary jets in our observations. Data from the MeerLICHT optical telescope, along with estimates of long time-scale variability induced by scintillation, imply that the majority of the new variables are active galactic nuclei. This tells us that citizen scientists can discover phenomena varying on time-scales from weeks to several years. The success both in terms of volunteer engagement and scientific merit warrants the continued development of the project, whilst we use the classifications from volunteers to develop machine learning techniques for finding transients.</abstract><cop>Ithaca</cop><pub>Cornell University Library, arXiv.org</pub><doi>10.48550/arxiv.2304.14157</doi><oa>free_for_read</oa></addata></record>
fulltext fulltext
identifier EISSN: 2331-8422
ispartof arXiv.org, 2023-04
issn 2331-8422
language eng
recordid cdi_proquest_journals_2807207393
source Publicly Available Content Database
subjects Active galactic nuclei
Binary stars
Bursts
Classification
Machine learning
Pulsars
Radio sources (astronomy)
Radio telescopes
Sensitivity
Stellar flares
Telescopes
X ray binaries
X ray stars
title Bursts from Space: MeerKAT - The first citizen science project dedicated to commensal radio transients
url http://sfxeu10.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/loughborough?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-8&ctx_tim=2024-12-23T07%3A52%3A40IST&url_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_ctx_fmt=infofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rfr_id=info:sid/primo.exlibrisgroup.com:primo3-Article-proquest&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Bursts%20from%20Space:%20MeerKAT%20-%20The%20first%20citizen%20science%20project%20dedicated%20to%20commensal%20radio%20transients&rft.jtitle=arXiv.org&rft.au=Andersson,%20Alex&rft.date=2023-04-27&rft.eissn=2331-8422&rft_id=info:doi/10.48550/arxiv.2304.14157&rft_dat=%3Cproquest%3E2807207393%3C/proquest%3E%3Cgrp_id%3Ecdi_FETCH-LOGICAL-a957-c52271c457d242b597ce055343502f1c8d1a0d2ef71f50e65226e86c2fc0df063%3C/grp_id%3E%3Coa%3E%3C/oa%3E%3Curl%3E%3C/url%3E&rft_id=info:oai/&rft_pqid=2807207393&rft_id=info:pmid/&rfr_iscdi=true