Zooniverse Reaches 1 Billion Volunteer Classifications with Global Support
The Zooniverse, a platform supported by NASA, has announced an extraordinary milestone of 1 billion classifications contributed by volunteers worldwide. This achievement underscores the significant role of public participation in scientific research, with volunteers aiding in diverse projects from identifying exoplanets to analyzing solar wind effects. Over 31 NASA-sponsored projects on the platform have alone garnered 120 million classifications from 324,000 volunteers since 2020.
The Zooniverse, recognized as the world’s largest platform for online people-powered research and a NASA grantee, has reached a significant milestone: 1 billion classifications from volunteers across the globe. This accomplishment celebrates the collective efforts of individuals who have contributed to scientific discovery by tasks such as marking light curve dips, confirming moving objects in videos, or identifying species in camera trap images.
Since 2020, 31 NASA-sponsored citizen science projects hosted on Zooniverse have alone accounted for 120 million classifications by 324,000 volunteers. These projects, including "Planet Hunters TESS," "Daily Minor Planet," and "Backyard Worlds: Planet 9," enable volunteers to assist in discovering exoplanets, identifying near-Earth objects, searching for brown dwarfs, analyzing solar wind effects, and informing wildlife management decisions.
The contributions from these efforts have resulted in 96 scientific publications, with 56 of these articles featuring NASA citizen scientists as co-authors. This highlights the substantial impact of public participation in accelerating discovery, combining human curiosity and pattern recognition with data from NASA missions and observatories.
Laura Trouille, principal investigator of Zooniverse and vice president of Science Engagement at the Adler Planetarium, stated that the one billion classifications represent "one billion moments of curiosity transformed into meaningful contributions to research." She added that "Every classification on Zooniverse brings us one step closer to new discoveries and a deeper understanding of our universe, our world, and ourselves.” Future collaboration between volunteers, scientists, and computing technology is anticipated to be crucial for tackling complex datasets, such as those from NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Zooniverse, co-founded by the Adler Planetarium and the University of Oxford with the University of Minnesota as a key partner, has maintained a six-year collaboration with NASA, providing essential infrastructure and access to its community of over 3 million registered volunteers.
(Source: NASA Breaking News)
