A BOINC based, citizen-science project for pixel Spectral Energy Distribution fitting of resolved galaxies in multi-wavelength surveys

TL;DR

This paper describes a citizen-science project utilizing distributed computing to perform pixel-level spectral energy distribution fitting on nearly 100,000 nearby galaxies across multiple wavelengths, enhancing galaxy property mapping.

Contribution

It introduces a novel citizen-science approach using BOINC to conduct large-scale, pixel-by-pixel SED fitting for resolved galaxies in multi-wavelength surveys.

Findings

Successful measurement of galaxy structural properties for ~100,000 galaxies

Creation of a multi-wavelength galaxy atlas for the nearby Universe

Demonstration of distributed computing for large-scale astrophysical data analysis

Abstract

In this work we present our experience from the first year of theSkyNet Pan-STARRS1 Optical Galaxy Survey (POGS) project. This citizen-scientist driven research project uses the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC) middleware and thousands of Internet-connected computers to measure the resolved galactic structural properties of ~100,000 low redshift galaxies. We are combining the spectral coverage of GALEX, Pan-STARRS1, SDSS, and WISE to generate a value-added, multi-wavelength UV-optical-NIR galaxy atlas for the nearby Universe. Specifically, we are measuring physical parameters (such as local stellar mass, star formation rate, and first-order star formation history) on a resolved pixel-by-pixel basis using spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting techniques in a distributed computing mode.