A mobile phone, a computer – and your curiosity – is all you need to become a citizen scientist of NASA and contribute to projects on earth, the solar system and beyond.
Science is built from small grains of sand, and you can contribute yours from any corner of the world.
Everything you need is a mobile phone or a computer with an internet connection to start a scientific adventure. Can you imagine making a pioneer discovery in the cosmos? Do you want to help solve problems that could improve life on our planet? Or maybe you dream of helping to solve an ancient mystery of the universe? All this is possible through NASA Citizen Scientific Program.
NASA defines the science of citizens or participatory sciences, such as “scientific projects based on volunteers,” said Dr. Marc Kuchner, astrophysicist and citizen science agent in the direction of the agency’s scientific mission in Washington, DC
For decades, volunteers have supported NASA researchers in different areas and various ways, depending on the project. They help take measures, sort data from NASA missions and deepen our understanding of the universe and our original planet. All account.
“It’s science for you: it’s collaborative,” said Kuchner, who oversees the more than 30 citizen science projects that NASA offers. “I connect the public and the scientists to do more science from NASA.”
Citizens can come from anywhere in the world – they don’t have to be citizens or American residents. Volunteers help NASA Look for planets in other solar systems, called exoplanets; sort the clouds in the earthly sky; observe solar eclipses; or detect comets and asteroids. Some of these space rocks are even named after the volunteers who helped find them.
Mass participation is the key to initiatives that require as many human eyes as possible. “There are scientific projects that you cannot do without the help of a large team,” said Kuchner. For example, projects that need large data sets from space telescopes-or “things that are physically large and you need people in different places in search of different angles,” he said.
An example is Aurorasauruswho invites people to observe and classify the northern dawn. “We are trying to study them with satellites, but it really helps to make people on the ground take photos of different places at different times,” he said.
“Part of the way we serve our country and our humanity is to share not only the pretty photos of our satellites, but all the experience of science,” said Kuchner.
More than 3 million people participated in the program. Kuchner thinks that it shows how people want to be part of what he calls the “roller coaster” of science. “They want to go on this adventure with us, and we are delighted to have them.”
“You can help scientists who are now in NASA and other organizations around the world to discover interesting things,” said Faber Burgos, a citizen scientist and scientific communicator in Colombia. “In fact, I always dreamed of making the story.”
Burgos has been involved in two projects for four years: the International collaboration for astronomical research (IASC)who seeks potentially dangerous asteroids in heaven, and Backyard worlds: planet 9. This project uses data from the Large field infrared explorer in NASA (Wise) and its monitoring mission, Neowise, to search for brown dwarfs and a ninth hypothetical planet.
“There are really incredible participants in this project,” said Kuchner, who helped launch it in 2015. NASA Wise and Neowise missions detected about 2 billion sources in the sky. “So the question is: among these many sources, is one of them new unknowns?” He said.
The project has already found more than 4,000 brown dwarfs. These are objects the size of the size of Jupiter – gas balls too large to be planets, but too small to be stars. Volunteers even helped discover a new type of brown dwarf.
Participants in the project also hope that they will find a ninth hypothetical planet, perhaps the size of a Neptune, on an orbit far beyond Pluto.
Burgos explained that images analysis is easy. “If it is an object in motion, it will obviously be something of interest,” he said. “Usually, when you see these images, everything is always. But if there is an object that moves, you have to keep it an eye on it.”
Once a citizen scientist marks the object through the complete image sequence, he sends information to NASA scientists to assess.
“As a citizen scientist, I am happy to do my part and, let us hope, one day discover something very interesting,” he said. “It is the beauty of NASA – it invites everyone to be scientific. Here, no matter what you are, but your desire to learn.”
To become a citizen scientist of NASA, start with Visit the program website. You will find a complete list of projects available with links to their respective sites. Some are available in Spanish and other languages. Many projects are also accommodated on the Zooniverse platform, available since 2006.
“Another interesting way to get involved is to come to one of our live events,” said Kuchner. These are virtual events open to the public, where NASA scientists present their projects and invite people to participate. “Choose a project you like-and if it’s not fun, choose a different,” he advised. “There are wonderful relationships to have if you contact scientists and other participants.”
People of all ages can be citizen scientists. Some projects are suitable for children, such as Nemo-Net, an iPad game that invites participants to color coral reefs to help sort them. “I would like to encourage young people to start there – or try a project with one of the elderly in their lives,” said Kuchner.
Citizens’ science can also take place in classrooms. In the Growth project beyond earthTeachers and students are launching experiences on how to grow plants in space for future missions. The IASC project also works with secondary schools to help students detect asteroids.
Observer is another initiative with an international network of teachers and students. The platform offers a range of projects – a lot in Spanish – which invite people to collect data using their mobile phones.
One of the most popular is the Mosquito Globe Habitat Master, who follows the migration and propagation of mosquitoes that carry illnesses. “It is a way to help save lives – following the vectors that transmit malaria and Zika, among others,” said Kuchner.
Other Globe projects explore everything from ground cover to cloud types. Some use astronomical phenomena visible for everyone. For example, during the total solar eclipse 2024, the participants measured the air temperature using their phone and shared this data with NASA scientists.
No preliminary study is necessary, but many volunteers continue to collaborate – or even to direct – sawing research. More than 500 citizens of NASA citizens have co-wrote scientific publications.
One of them is Hugo Durantini Luca, from Córdoba, Argentina, who participated in 17 published articles, with more on the way. For years, he has explored various scientific projects, looking for one where he could contribute more actively.
He participated in the first Citizen Science Project of NASA, Stardust @ Home, which invites users to seek interstellar dust particles in collectors of the Stardust mission, using a virtual microscope.
In 2014, he discovered Disk Detective, a project that is looking for records around the stars, where planets can form. Looking at images of Wise and Neowise missions, participants can help understand how worlds are born and how solar systems are evolving.
“And, moreover, if we find planets or a sign of life, so much the better,” said Durantini Luca.
Although this remains a dream, they have made other discoveries – like a new type of stellar disc called the “Peter Pan disc”, which seems young even if the star it surrounds is not.
In 2016, Durantini Luca had the chance to support the disk detective with his own observations from the southern hemisphere. He went to the astronomical complex of El Leoncito (Casleo), an observatory in San Juan, Argentina. There, he learned to use a spectrograph – an instrument that breaks down the light of the stars to analyze its composition.
He cherishes this experience. “Curiously, it was the first time in my life, I used a telescope,” he said.
Although opportunities in person are rare, virtual and physical events help build the community. Citizen scientists remain in contact every week by various channels.
“Several of us are already friends – after so many years of bad jokes on calls,” said Durantini Luca.
“People send me photos of how they met,” said Kuchner. He said that the program had even changed the way it was science. “It has changed my life,” he said. “Science is already cool – and it makes it even cooler.”