*Stargazers map mysterious force acting on galaxies *

Observations might seem to suggest mysterious force acting on galaxies

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 15/10/2007

A legion of amateur stargazers has posed a profound challenge to
cosmological theories: our universe appears to be lopsided.

Professional astronomers had asked the public for assistance in mapping
the night sky, and were stunned when they received millions of hits on
their website within a few days, enabling them to classify galaxies in
the universe at rocket speed.

The response has been so great that within a couple of months the Galaxy
Zoo project has completed a preliminary analysis of the heavens which
would normally take years.

The survey has revealed that the collections of millions of stars, dust,
gas and planets in galaxies prefer to rotate anticlockwise from the
viewpoint of an observer on Earth.

Traditionally astronomers have believed that galaxies would spin either
clockwise or anti-clockwise in equal proportion. But these observations
would seem to suggest that either a mysterious force is acting on them
or that the universe is in some way lopsided.

More than 100,000 people from around the world have logged on to the
Galaxy Zoo website to take part in the project run from Oxford
University's physics department to study images of galaxies taken for
the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a robot telescope based in New Mexico that
is producing a digital map of the universe.

The amateurs are the first humans to study the brightest million
galaxies and have been asked to classify them into two types, spirals,
which are circular pinwheels, like our own galaxy the Milky Way, and
rugby ball shaped galaxies which are known as elliptical galaxies.

Because of their complex shape, the human eye is much better than
computers at sorting the galaxies, said Dr Chris Lintott, a member of
the Oxford team.

As a double check, the same image was shown to several users and the
scientists have been struck by how good the amateurs are at classifying
30 million images.

"We've proved that random people are as good as professional
astronomers," Dr Lintott said.

More remarkable, the find suggests that one small click for an amateur
stargazer could be one giant leap for physics. "Preliminary results
suggest that spiral galaxies seem to point clockwise," he said, adding
that that meant they rotate anticlockwise from our perspective. If this
new finding turns out to hold true, "you will have to throw away the
standard model of cosmology."

Sir Patrick Moore, an enthusiastic supporter, said: "Non-professionals
have always been deeply involved in studying the sky and they now have
yet another opportunity to make themselves really useful. Moreover,
their help is now of immense value so do join up."

The Galaxy Zoo team involves the University of Oxford, the University of
Portsmouth and Johns Hopkins University, and Fingerprint Digital Media
of Belfast.