Tag

Citizen Science

All articles tagged with #citizen science

science15 days ago•5 min saved

Humpbacks perform rare 'gape' display as migration begins

Off Western Australia, a humpback was filmed performing a rare 'gape' display—jaw wide, fins sweeping—likely a social signal or calf-stretch rather than feeding. Macquarie University researchers, drawing on 66 crowd-sourced videos, suggest gaping is a distinct behavior revealed through citizen science, not a feeding move. As humpbacks begin their annual migration, experts urge observers to keep distance to protect whales amid increased coastal activity and risks like entanglements.

via The Guardian|

#australia #citizen-science #gaping-behavior

science20 days ago•2 min saved

Volunteer-Powered Search Doubles Brown Dwarf Census with 3,000 New Discoveries

NASA’s Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 volunteers have essentially doubled the known population of brown dwarfs, adding more than 3,000 discoveries over the last decade from WISE/NEOWISE data via the Zooniverse platform. About 200,000 volunteers contributed, with 61 co-authors among the 75 authors, uncovering rare objects such as extreme T subdwarfs and possible aurorae, improving maps of the galaxy’s mass distribution while the search continues through billions more sources.

via NASA Science (.gov)|

#astronomy #backyard-worlds-planet-9 #brown-dwarfs

science28 days ago•3 min saved

Citizen Scientists Help NASA Pave the Way for Safer, Longer Space Missions

NASA invites the public to join citizen-science projects that aid human space exploration—sorting MMS data to study solar storms, growing space crops with Growing Beyond Earth, analyzing life-in-space data, and building space-weather stations with HamSCI—open to anyone with a love of science and no citizenship requirements.

via NASA Science (.gov)|

#citizen-science #nasa #science

science29 days ago•4 min saved

Public Invited to Map the Cosmos by Finding Gravitational Lenses in Euclid Data

The European Space Agency’s Euclid survey has released a massive data set (about 72 million galaxies, roughly 30 times larger than earlier) and invites the public to help identify gravitational lenses via the Space Warps citizen-science project. AI has pre-selected around 300,000 candidate images, but human inspection remains key to spotting the subtle arcs and rings. The goal is to discover more than 10,000 new lenses, with early results from just 0.04% of the data yielding 500 lenses, enabling scientists to measure total mass (including dark matter) and study cosmic expansion. No physics degree is required—just curiosity.

via ScienceAlert|

#citizen-science #dark-matter #euclid

space-science1 month ago•5 min saved

Euclid Lens Hunt Invites the Public to Map Dark Matter with Space Warps

The European Space Agency’s Euclid telescope is powering a new citizen-science project on Zooniverse called Space Warps, enlisting volunteers to identify strong gravitational lenses in Euclid’s high‑quality images. This work helps study dark matter, dark energy, and cosmic expansion, with around 300,000 AI‑preselected images guiding the search and the team expecting to uncover more than 10,000 new lens candidates from Euclid Data Release 1.

via European Space Agency|

#citizen-science #dark-energy #dark-matter

science2 months ago•14 min saved

Koblenz Fireball Triggers Meteorite Hunt Across Germany

A bright fireball over western Germany near Koblenz exploded and showered space rocks; scientists and citizen scientists pieced together the meteorite's likely trajectory using hundreds of eyewitness reports and KIT seismic data, while German law generally lets you keep meteorites unless they’re of special value; NASA estimates around 44,000 kg of meteoritic material reaches Earth daily, mostly micrometeorites.

via Hackaday|

#citizen-science #fireball #germany

space2 months ago•5 min saved

Milky Way Runaway: 1-Million-MPH Hypervelocity Object Identified by Citizen Scientists

Citizen scientists in NASA's Backyard Worlds project identified CWISE J124909.08+362116.0 traveling at about 1 million miles per hour, fast enough to escape the Milky Way. Its nature is unclear, likely a brown dwarf or low-mass star, possibly ejected by a white-dwarf supernova or a close encounter in a globular cluster. The discovery, reported in Astrophysical Journal Letters, underscores the power of crowdsourced science using NASA's WISE data.

via The Daily Galaxy|

#astronomy #brown-dwarf #citizen-science

science2 months ago•3 min saved

Rolling-meadow giant: citizen scientists uncover one of the reef's largest coral colonies

Citizen scientists identify a Pavona clavus coral off Cairns spanning about 111 meters and covering roughly 3,973 square meters, potentially making it one of the reef’s largest colonies. Genetic testing is needed to confirm if it is a single organism or multiple close colonies, with size mapped via photogrammetry and implications for reef resilience.

via The Guardian|

#citizen-science #coral #great-barrier-reef

science3 months ago•213 min saved

Citizen scientists uncover world’s largest coral colony off Australia

A mother-daughter team with Citizens of the Reef identified the world’s largest known coral colony on the Great Barrier Reef—a Pavona clavus spanning about 111 meters and covering roughly 3,973 square meters—verified by underwater measurements and a 3D model; the exact location isn’t released to protect the site, and the find underscores the value of citizen science in reef monitoring amid ongoing bleaching.

via CNN|

#citizen-science #conservation #coral

science3 months ago•43 min saved

Citizen Scientist Discovers Earth-sized Exoplanet, Paving Way for Next-Gen Telescopes to Study It

A citizen scientist analyzing Kepler data identified an Earth-sized exoplanet, HD 137010b, orbiting a nearby K-dwarf star HD 137010 (about 146 light-years away). The discovery, made by Alexander Venner, was noted for having been missed by automated searches and will guide upcoming telescope campaigns (ESA’s PLATO and Terra Hunting Experiment) to scrutinize a potentially habitable world.

via Good News Network|

#astronomy #citizen-science #exoplanet

science7 months ago•5 min saved

Young Astronomer Discovers Two Potential New Asteroids

A 12-year-old Canadian boy from Ontario, Siddharth Patel, has potentially discovered two new asteroids through a citizen science program in partnership with NASA, highlighting his passion for astronomy and his aspirations to become an astronaut.

via Space|

#asteroids #canadian-astronaut #citizen-science

science7 months ago•2 min saved

Astronomers Discover Rare and Powerful 'Odd Radio Circles' in Space

Astronomers, with the help of citizen scientists, have discovered the most powerful and distant 'odd radio circle' (ORC) to date, featuring a unique double-ring structure that may be shaped by super winds from spiral galaxies, providing new insights into galaxy and black hole co-evolution.

via Live Science|

#astronomy #black-holes #citizen-science

science7 months ago•4 min saved

Astronomers Discover Rare Double-Ringed Radio Structures in Deep Space

Citizen scientists discovered the most powerful twin odd radio circles (ORCs) in space, revealing new insights into these large, mysterious structures that are linked to galaxy activity and black hole phenomena, with implications for understanding galaxy evolution and the role of plasma interactions in space.

via Space|

#black-holes #citizen-science #galaxy-clusters

science7 months ago•4 min saved

NASA Confirms Mysterious Sphere Escaping Milky Way at 1 Million MPH

NASA, with the help of citizen scientists, discovered a mysterious high-speed sphere named CWISE J1249 escaping the Milky Way at 1 million miles per hour, challenging existing classifications and prompting theories about its origin, such as a supernova kick or black hole slingshot.

via Rude Baguette|

#citizen-science #cwise-j1249 #high-speed-object

science7 months ago•4 min saved

Scientists Discover the Most Powerful and Distant Odd Radio Circle Yet

Astronomers have discovered the most powerful and distant odd radio circle, RAD J131346.9+500320, which features two overlapping rings spanning a million light-years, likely caused by black hole activity or galactic mergers. This discovery highlights the importance of human pattern recognition in analyzing vast astronomical data, with citizen scientists playing a key role. Future telescopes like SKA aim to uncover more such structures, deepening our understanding of galaxy evolution.

via ZME Science|

#astronomy #black-holes #citizen-science