Thursday, September 2, 2021

People Power!

"Citizen scientist" is a great title. It means regular people (like you and me) can help researchers make new discoveries.

You don't need any special training to make important discoveries. You need eyes and some examples to follow, then - BAM - you're exploring the universe!

Zooniverse is the world’s largest and most popular platform for people-powered research. They say this:

"You don’t need any specialized background, training, or expertise to participate in any Zooniverse projects. We make it easy for anyone to contribute to real academic research, on their own computer, at their own convenience."

Here are some of my favorite Zooniverse projects. 

Try them out and let me know what you think at MickeyKulp00 -at- gmail -dot- com.


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AI4Mars
Teaching Mars Rovers How to Classify Martian Terrain
https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/hiro-ono/ai4mars



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Active Asteroids
Examine images to find comet-like tails... on asteroids! These strange objects hold clues about water on Earth, in the solar system, and beyond.
https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/orionnau/active-asteroids




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Cosmological Jellyfish
Help us find galaxies that look like jellyfish! This will help us understand how they interact with their environment.
https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/apillepich/cosmological-jellyfish




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Dark Energy Explorers

Identify distant galaxies to help measure dark energy when the universe was just ~2-3 billion years old.
https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/erinmc/dark-energy-explorers






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Backyard Worlds: Planet 9
Search the realm beyond Neptune for new brown dwarfs and planets.
https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/marckuchner/backyard-worlds-planet-9