Category: Astronomy & Space

Slavery from Space is a citizen science project that allows users to further the antislavery movement by mapping the locations of activities in which people are frequently found to be enslaved. How many slaves do you think there are in the world? You might be surprised. In 2016, the International Labour Organization estimated that 40.3 million people were […]

2018 was a great year for Citizen Science! More than 3,000 projects and events are now registered on SciStarter. There’s something for everyone, everywhere. In this edition of the newsletter, we are honoring the Top 18 Projects of 2018: projects that our collective community shared, participated in, and loved. Cheers! The SciStarter Team GLOBE Observer: […]

The lazy days of summer are perfect for kicking back and watching the clouds float by. Why not contribute to citizen science from the comfort of your hammock with this cloud-observing project from NASA? Help NASA understand clouds by reporting your observations with the citizen science project S’Cool  Clouds are so democratic. You don’t need to […]

I noticed the season’s first juncos hopping in my yard a few short weeks ago – an event I look forward to every year because I know their arrival here in New England means winter is on its way. And by “winter,” I mean, specifically, winter solstice – the longest night of the year, the […]

How can you protect an astronaut from getting a sunburn in space? The Royal Society of Chemistry in London has designed a collection of hands-on chemistry experiments that kids can do to explore this question and discover the answer for themselves. The project is called Mission: Starlight. It is free and includes downloadable videos, worksheets, and […]

By Dolores Hill and Carl Hergenrother, Target Asteroids! Co-Leads Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission Today’s amateur astronomers carry on long held traditions in citizen science by making valuable contributions in data collection and monitoring celestial objects of all kinds. They supplement work done by professional astronomers and fill gaps […]

By Dr. Liz MacDonald, founder of Aurorasaurus and scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. This blog reposted from blog.aurorasaurus.org. Over a century ago, American astronomer W.W. Campbell set up a 40 foot ‘Schaeberle camera’ in Jeur, India to take pictures and study various properties of the sun’s outermost layer called the corona during the […]

On August 21st, millions of people across the U.S. will have the opportunity to witness a total solar eclipse. But we won’t be the only ones taking notice—there is a good chance animals, and even some plants, will be affected by the event, too. It is not as farfetched as you might think. Many animals […]

By: Alexei V. Filippenko and Hugh Hudson On August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse will trace a shadow over a narrow band of the United States from Oregon to South Carolina.  And if you own a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera*, you can become a part of scientific history by joining hundreds of other photographers […]

Today is National Repeat Day and what better way to celebrate than to publish an older post? A recent article in Astrophysical Journal Letters has shown that citizen scientists have just discovered the first brown dwarf through the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project just four weeks after the project launched back in February.  Now, isn’t that worth repeating? […]