This is very cool, the Space Telescope Science Institute, the people who decide what research is done with the Hubble Space Telescope, are holding a public vote on which object to image.
Now that I think about it, they should have called it “Survivor: Universe” and let people vote against objects, ’cause being mean-spirited is way more fun. I mean, look at NGC 4289. It totally snubbed ARP 274. Don’t you see the way that it’s standing!??! It’s all “talk to the spiral arm, ’cause the central bar ain’t listening.” And for what? It thinks ARP 274 got more dark matter? Not good enough, vote that bastard off already.
Ahem. Meanwhile, Seth at the US LHC blogs wonders if the LHC experiments can do something similar. I kinda hope they don’t. Do we really need national TV exposure of all the ways the different quarks hate each other? That shit is ugly.
Anyway, go vote: there are prizes!
Nerdiest post ever.
Why, thank you. I do try.
If you vote (go go interacting galaxies!) you’re allowed to enter a contest to win a big picture of space or something. After you enter your email address you’re prompted to choose which very specific region of academia owns you:
K-12 Student, College student, K-12 Educator, College Educator, Museum Professional, Library professional, Home schooler, None of the above.
No lie, those are the only options.
Yeah, I liked that as well. I feel like it’s somehow the exact compliment of the normal lists of occupations I’m asked to choose from; the ones where I usually end up picking “Education”.