The Milky Way Project First Data Release: A Bubblier Galactic Disk

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new catalogue of over 5,000 infrared bubbles in the Milky Way, created through citizen science, providing valuable data for studying star formation and Galactic structure.

Contribution

The study presents a large, independently measured bubble catalogue from citizen scientists, with consensus parameters and insights into bubble hierarchies and star formation activity.

Findings

86% of known bubbles rediscovered by volunteers

29% of bubbles are on larger bubble rims or contain smaller bubbles

Created a heat map of star-formation activity in the Galactic plane

Abstract

We present a new catalogue of 5,106 infrared bubbles created through visual classification via the online citizen science website 'The Milky Way Project'. Bubbles in the new catalogue have been independently measured by at least 5 individuals, producing consensus parameters for their position, radius, thickness, eccentricity and position angle. Citizen scientists - volunteers recruited online and taking part in this research - have independently rediscovered the locations of at least 86% of three widely-used catalogues of bubbles and H ii regions whilst finding an order of magnitude more objects. 29% of the Milky Way Project catalogue bubbles lie on the rim of a larger bubble, or have smaller bubbles located within them, opening up the possibility of better statistical studies of triggered star formation. Also outlined is the creation of a 'heat map' of star-formation activity in the Galactic plane. This online resource provides a crowd-sourced map of bubbles and arcs in the Milky Way, and will enable better statistical analysis of Galactic star-formation sites.