Citizen Science

UNITE All-Nighter Delights Amateur Astronomers

Maybe you read about them in the papers–amateur astronomers in Japan, Russia, France, Finland, and the United States have been pulling all-nighters to spot extraordinary exoplanets, planets orbiting stars other than the Sun. NASA’s UNITE project holds these planetary stakeouts several times every month, and you can join in!

Posted February 2, 2024

Citizen Science

Planetary Science

Thank You, Jovian Vortex Hunters! The Hunt Is Over…for Now.

We did it! The Jovian Vortex Hunter project, launched on Zooniverse in June 2022, is out of data as of December 23, 2023. Over 6,000 registered volunteers joined the project to view images from NASA’s JunoCam instrument of the swirling clouds in Jupiter’s atmosphere and draw on them using a computer mouse. Together, they contributed over a […]

Posted January 29, 2024

Auroras

Citizen Science

Suomi NPP (Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership)

An Aurora in Another Light

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite sensor on the NOAA-NASA Suomi NPP satellite captured this image of the aurora borealis, or northern lights, over western Canada at 3:23 a.m. MST (5:23 a.m. EST) on November 5, 2023.

Posted January 17, 2024

Astrophysics

Citizen Science

NASA Volunteers Shine at American Astronomical Society Meeting

The American Astronomical Society (AAS) met in New Orleans this week, attended by thousands of astronomers and reporters, and NASA volunteers were in the spotlight. Wow! Big congratulations to everyone involved!

Posted January 12, 2024

Astrophysics

Citizen Science

Be a Burst Chaser and Witness the Most Powerful Explosions in the Universe!

Yes, the universe IS talking to you! Gamma-ray bursts, massive explosions visible from everywhere in the observable universe, are telling us something about how stars end their lives and how massive black holes form.

Posted January 9, 2024

Citizen Science

Earth Science

Going the Extra 500 miles for Alaskan River Ice

Teachers and students in remote Alaskan villages have become vital NASA climate researchers. These special volunteers are so important that last year, climate scientists took an epic 550 mile snowmobile journey to collaborate with them! You can learn all about it in a new video from the Fresh Eyes on Ice project.

Posted December 21, 2023

Astrophysics

Citizen Science

Cosmic Companionship Quest Marks Major Milestone

Are we alone in the universe? About 30,000 volunteers want to know! These volunteers visited arewealone.earth to sift through a huge data set from the 100 meter Green Bank Telescope—inspecting it for signals that might indicate intelligent extraterrestrial life. As of this week, this giant team has made ONE MILLION inspections!

Posted December 18, 2023

Astrophysics

Citizen Science

Amateur Astronomers Help Discover Cosmic Crash

Astronomers found what looks like a glowing cloud of dust from a massive planetary pile-up—and NASA volunteers helped make the discovery!

Posted December 8, 2023

Citizen Science

Earth Science

Artificial Intelligence Plus Your Cell Phone Means Better Maps of Earth!

In 2019, the GLOBE Land Cover project began asking volunteers to help map planet Earth by taking photos of their surroundings facing multiple directions, including north, south, east and west. Now, a new paper by Huang et al. demonstrates how to combine these images using Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Posted December 4, 2023

Astrophysics

Citizen Science

Backyard Worlds Volunteers Complete Ten Million Classifications in an Epic Search for New Objects Among the Nearest Stars

The Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 and Backyard Worlds: Cool Neighbors projects invite members of the public to search images from NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission to find new objects among the nearest stars.

Posted November 16, 2023