Identification of ram pressure stripping features in galaxies using citizen science
Context. Ram pressure stripped galaxies are rare cases of environmental evolution in action. However, our ability to understand these transforming galaxies is limited by the small number of identified galaxies experiencing ram pressure stripping (RPS). Aims. Our aim is to explore the efficacy of citizen science classifications in identifying ram pressure stripped galaxies, and use this to aid in motivating new potential samples of ram pressure stripped candidates. Methods. We compiled a sample of over 200 known ram pressure stripped galaxies from the existing literature, with morphological classifications obtained from Galaxy Zoo. We compared these galaxies with magnitude and redshift-matched comparison cluster and field galaxies. Additionally, we created a sample of SDSS cluster galaxies, with morphological classifications similar to known ram pressure stripped galaxies, and compared the fraction of potential new RPS candidates against control samples. Results. We find that ram pressure stripped galaxies exhibit a higher proportion of ‘odd’ and ‘irregular’ morphological classifications compared to field and cluster comparison samples. This trend is particularly pronounced in galaxies displaying strong optical ram pressure stripping features, but absent from galaxies with only radio tails. We find that SDSS galaxies with Galaxy Zoo classifications consistent with the known RPS galaxies have a higher fraction of visible ram pressure stripping features (19%) compared with other cluster galaxies (12%) when classified by experts. We identify 101 new ram pressure stripping candidate galaxies through these expert classifications. Conclusions. We demonstrate that indirect morphological classifications from citizen science projects can increase the efficiency with which new stripping candidates are found. Projects such as Galaxy Zoo can aid in the identification of ram pressure stripped galaxies that are key to understanding galaxy evolution in clusters.
Authors
- Benedetta Vulcani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0980-1499)
- A. C. C. Lourenço (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4393-7798)
- D. Bettoni (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4158-6496)
- Jacob P. Crossett (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9810-1664)
- Kshitija Kelkar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8130-3593)
- Callum Bellhouse (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6179-8007)
- Sean McGee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3255-3139)
- Yara L. Jaffé (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2150-1130)
- R. J. E. Smith (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8516-3324)
Institutions
- European Southern Observatory (CL)
- NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory (CL)
- Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova (IT)
- Federico Santa María Technical University (CL)
- University of Valparaíso (CL)
- University of Birmingham (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Published
- 2024-12-18
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202450371
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.68
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- Princeton University
- Ohio State University
- University of Washington
- Johns Hopkins University
- University of Pittsburgh
- Case Western Reserve University
- Drexel University
- Universität Basel
- University of Portsmouth
- New Mexico State University
- Agenția Națională pentru Cercetare și Dezvoltare
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
- Comité Mixto ESO-Gobierno de Chile
- Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo
- Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie
- Science and Technology Facilities Council
- U.S. Naval Observatory
- Fermilab
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
- CHIST-ERA