Citizen ASAS-SN Data Release. I. Variable Star Classification Using Citizen Science. (1st February 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Christy, C. T.; Jayasinghe, T.; Stanek, K. Z.; Kochanek, C. S.; Way, Z.; Prieto, J. L.; Shappee, B. J.; Holoien, T. W.-S.; Thompson, T. A.; Schneider, A.
• Is Part Of: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Volume 134:Number 1032(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-02-01
• Subjects: Astronomy -- Periodicals; Astronomy; Periodicals; Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1088/1538-3873/ac44f0
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0004-6280

Abstract

Abstract: We present the first results from Citizen ASAS-SN, a citizen science project for the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) hosted on the Zooniverse platform. Citizen ASAS-SN utilizes the newer, deeper, higher cadence ASAS-SN g -band data and tasks volunteers to classify periodic variable star candidates based on their phased light curves. We started from 40, 640 new variable candidates from an input list of ∼7.4 million stars with δ < −60° and the volunteers identified 10, 420 new discoveries which they classified as 4234 pulsating variables, 3132 rotational variables, 2923 eclipsing binaries, and 131 variables flagged as Unknown. They classified known variable stars with an accuracy of 89% for pulsating variables, 81% for eclipsing binaries, and 49% for rotational variables. We examine user performance, agreement between users, and compare the citizen science classifications with our machine learning classifier updated for the g -band light curves. In general, user activity correlates with higher classification accuracy and higher user agreement. We used the user's "Junk" classifications to develop an effective machine learning classifier to separate real from false variables, and there is a clear path for using this "Junk" training set to significantly improve our primary machine learning classifier. We also illustrate the value of Citizen ASAS-SN for identifying unusual variables with several examples.