Catalog of bubbles from Milky Way Project

Bubbles in the new catalogue have been independently measured b at least five 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 percent of three widely used catalogues of bubbles and HII regions whilst finding an order of magnitude more objects. 29 per cent 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.