Rubin Comet Catchers
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, jointly sponsored by the United States National Science Foundation and Department of Energy, observes the Southern Hemisphere sky each night to search for comets, asteroids, and other kinds of moving, blinking and changing objects. Rubin Comet Catchers invites you to join this historic search by helping identify rare objects like water-bearing comets and asteroids in the Rubin images. Finding such objects gives us clues about the origin of water and life on Earth.
project task
Examine images
division
Planetary Science
where
Online
launched
2025
What you'll do
- Search images captured by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory to find comet candidates.
- Discuss interesting objects with professional scientists and other citizen scientists in the project Talk forums.
Requirements
- Time: minutes
- Equipment: Internet-connected mobile device or computer
- Knowledge: None; in project training provided.
Get started!
- Visit the project website.
- Complete the tutorial to learn how to recognize comets.
- Start looking for comets!
Learn More
The Rubin Comet Catchers is related to another NASA-supported project called Active Asteroids. The main differences are that Rubin Comet Catchers asks volunteers to:
- Identify any and all active objects (objects that have a visible halo or tail, indicating the emission of material or gas).
- Study flip books (short animations) of data from the Rubin Observatory rather than single still images.
Learn more about the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and the science of the project on the Rubin Comet Catchers’ About page and meet the rest of our Research Team!
Get to know the people of Rubin Comet Catchers Team!
