Citizen Science Highlights

NASA needs your help! You can collaborate with professional scientists, conduct cutting-edge science, and make real discoveries. A science degree is not required, just a passion for understanding the natural world. Here, you can read news about NASA-funded citizen science projects, new discoveries, and opportunities to get involved. For more information on current citizen science projects.

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NASA Returns to Arctic Studying Summer Sea Ice Melt

5 min read

What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic, and a new NASA mission is helping improve data modeling and increasing our understanding of Earth’s rapidly changing climate. Changing ice, ocean, and atmospheric conditions in the northernmost part of…

Article8 hours ago
A spiral galaxy with three prominent arms wrapping around it. The galaxy holds plenty of extra gas and dark dust between the arms. There are shining blue points throughout the arms and some patches of gas out beyond the galaxy’s edge, where stars are forming. The center of the galaxy also shines brightly. It is on a dark background where some small orange dots mark distant galaxies.

Hubble Images a Classic Spiral 

2 min read

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image treats viewers to a wonderfully detailed snapshot of the spiral galaxy NGC 3430 that lies 100 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo Minor. Several other galaxies, located relatively nearby to this one,…

Article13 hours ago
Illustration of a particle jet emerging from a dying star

NASA’s Fermi Finds New Feature in Brightest Gamma-Ray Burst Yet Seen

4 min read

In October 2022, astronomers were stunned by what was quickly dubbed the BOAT — the brightest-of-all-time gamma-ray burst (GRB). Now an international science team reports that data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope reveals a feature never seen before. “A…

Article1 day ago

How NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Will Illuminate Cosmic Dawn

6 min read

Today, enormous stretches of space are crystal clear, but that wasn’t always the case. During its infancy, the universe was filled with a “fog” that made it opaque, cloaking the first stars and galaxies. NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space…

Article1 day ago
This image shows the exoplanet Epsilon Indi Ab. The image is mostly black, with blue scale-like features apparent in the central region of the image. At the center of the image, there is a black circle, and in the center, a symbol representing a star. This black circle blocks the light from the host star. To the lower left of the circle is a fuzzy bright orange circle, which is the exoplanet.

NASA’s Webb Images Cold Exoplanet 12 Light-Years Away

6 min read

An international team of astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has directly imaged an exoplanet roughly 12 light-years from Earth. The planet, Epsilon Indi Ab, is one of the coldest exoplanets observed to date. The planet is several times…

Article2 days ago
ICON, shown in this artist’s concept, studied the frontiers of space, the dynamic zone high in our atmosphere where terrestrial weather from below meets space weather above.

NASA’s ICON Mission Ends with Several Ionospheric Breakthroughs

5 min read

After contributing to many important findings on the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space — an area where space weather can interfere with both satellites and communications signals — NASA’s ICON (Ionospheric Connection Explorer) mission has come to an end.…

Article2 days ago
A young scientist is measuring the growth of plants in a laboratory setting. She is wearing glasses, a navy blue jacket, and a lanyard around her neck. She uses a wooden ruler to measure the height of leafy green plants growing in a black tray under bright LED lights. The background shows various scientific posters and equipment, including a shelf with additional plants and grow lights.

Seed Funding Proposals Due November 19 This Year!

2 min read

Since 2020, NASA’s Citizen Science Seed Funding Program (CSSFP) has launched 24 new projects to expand citizen science in professional research. This year, proposals are due by November 19, 2024, with optional Notices of Intent by October 1, 2024. The…

Article4 days ago

25 Images to Celebrate NASA’s Chandra 25th Anniversary

4 min read

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects. These images, which all include data from Chandra, demonstrate how X-ray astronomy explores all corners of the universe.…

Article4 days ago

NASA-Funded Studies Explain How Climate Is Changing Earth’s Rotation

6 min read

Researchers used more than 120 years of data to decipher how melting ice, dwindling groundwater, and rising seas are nudging the planet’s spin axis and lengthening days. Days on Earth are growing slightly longer, and that change is accelerating. The…

Article1 week ago
A dwarf irregular galaxy. It appears as a cloud of bluish gas, filled with point-like stars that spread beyond the edge of the gas. A few glowing red clouds sit near its center. Many other objects are visible around it: distant galaxies in the background, four-pointed stars in the foreground, and star clusters that are part of the galaxy appear as bright spots surrounded by more tiny stars.

Hubble Studies a Potential Galactic Merger

3 min read

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 5238, located 14.5 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici. Its unexciting, blob-like appearance seems to resemble an oversized star cluster more than a classic image…

Article1 week ago
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