NASA’s Science Mission Directorate has selected 19 proposals for new citizen-science opportunities in 2026. The projects will involve volunteers in research ranging from the search for free-floating planets and galaxy mergers to monitoring space weather, mapping lunar resources, tracking Antarctic habitats and validating satellite observations of Earth.
The selections build on a year of notable achievements for NASA’s volunteer science community. Volunteers with Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 have discovered most of the known brown dwarfs, celestial objects with properties similar to planets. The Zooniverse platform, supported by a NASA grant, has reached 1 billion classifications. New projects are also using super intelligence (SI) techniques to extend volunteer work, while more volunteers are using SI to build data tools and contribute to scientific papers.
NASA’s science community is already developing the next generation of volunteer projects and innovations. The 19 selected proposals come through two programs: the Citizen Science Seed Funding Program and the Science Activation Program.
Citizen Science Seed Funding Program
NASA’s Science Mission Directorate created the Citizen Science Seed Funding Program (CSSFP-25) to help scientists and other experts develop citizen-science projects and expand the number of professional scientists who use citizen-science methods. Twelve proposals were selected in the latest round.
Astrophysics
“The Rogue Worlds Project: Activating volunteers to uncover the hidden population of super Jupiters with SPHEREx” is led by Principal Investigator Jacqueline Faherty of the American Museum of Natural History. Volunteers will search data from NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) mission for free-floating planets and brown dwarfs in clusters of young stars. SPHEREx is mapping the entire sky at near-infrared wavelengths.
“Quantifying the calibrations between intrinsic galaxy merger timescales with visual pair/tidal-feature classifications” is led by Principal Investigator Kameswara Bharadwaj Mantha of the University of Missouri. The project will investigate galaxy mergers and help astronomers understand how galaxies evolve. Volunteers will classify realistic simulated images of galaxies to help researchers study the statistics and dynamical evolution of mergers.
“Overlap Zoo; cosmic light tables for galaxy transparency” is led by Principal Investigator Benne Holwerda of the University of Louisville. Galaxies contain dust as well as billions of stars, and the dust is easiest to see and measure when one galaxy overlaps or backlights another. Volunteers will identify and characterize these rare overlapping galaxy pairs to help determine how much dust they contain. Overlap Zoo is live and accepting participants.
“Planet Hunters Roman: Extending Citizen Science to Planetary Microlensing” is led by Principal Investigator Bernard Gaudi of The Ohio State University. Exoplanets orbit stars beyond the Sun, and their gravity can bend passing light. Volunteers will search data from NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope for exoplanets identified through this gravitational bending of starlight.
Heliophysics
“Space Weather UnderGround: Deploying a low-cost Magnetometer Array with Citizens for Heliophysics Research” is led by Principal Investigator Hyunju Connor of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Along with sunlight, the Sun produces the solar wind, a continuous flow of charged particles. Earth’s magnetic field deflects most of these particles, although it is less effective during extreme events. Volunteers in Alaska will set up and monitor their own magnetometers to help scientists track subtle disturbances in Earth’s magnetosphere.
“A Citizen Science Initiative for Sonified Plasma Wave Characterization” is led by Principal Investigator Lauren Blum of the University of Colorado, Boulder. Plasma is ionized gas found at the edge of Earth’s magnetosphere. The solar wind can interact with the plasma and generate waves. This project will convert data from the region into sound, allowing volunteers to listen for and identify waves in the magnetosphere.
“Revealing the Consequences of Foreshock Transients for Earth’s Magnetospheric System Through Participatory Science” is led by Principal Investigator Wenli Mo of Johns Hopkins University. Volunteers will examine data from NASA’s MMS (Magnetospheric Multiscale) mission to identify “foreshock transients,” phenomena that play a critical but poorly understood role in space weather. The resulting dataset will help researchers study how these transients form, their properties and their effects.
“IMPACT: Interactive Magnetospheric Particle Analysis and Citizen Technology” is led by Principal Investigator Muhammad Fraz Bashir of the University of California, Los Angeles. Energetic particles can descend from the magnetosphere into the upper ionosphere, heating and disturbing it, disrupting radio-wave propagation and affecting GPS operations. Volunteers will compare satellite measurements of energetic particles with ground-based measurements of electromagnetic waves. These comparisons will help identify which space waves cause different forms of particle precipitation, improving understanding and prediction of GPS disruptions and increased radiation risks during space-weather events.
“Unlocking Clues About Particle Acceleration and Transport Using Particle Distributions” is led by Principal Investigator Gang Kai Poh of The Catholic University of America. NASA’s Advanced Composition Explorer, Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter missions collect complementary data about the Sun, the solar wind and space weather. Volunteers will examine data from these missions to help researchers study the complex movement of energetic particles from the Sun.
“Data Fusion in Space: Combining Citizen Observations to Classify Solar Wind Tracers” is led by Principal Investigator Cynthia Lopez-Portela of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Volunteers will use their pattern-recognition skills to identify features in images of the solar corona, where the solar wind begins. These features can serve as tracers, allowing scientists to follow the solar wind’s movement and improve models of its behavior.
Planetary science
“Mapping Lunar Iron Abundance Hotspots to Enable In-Situ Resource Utilization of Regolith Consolidation Technologies” is led by Principal Investigator Karen Martirosyan of the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley. Building a lunar base will require the creative use of local materials. Volunteers will help locate iron deposits in data from NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper mission, supporting research into the Moon’s formation and future exploration.
“Small Body Discovery and Outburst Monitoring with a Worldwide Citizen Science Telescope Network” is led by Principal Investigator Ariel Graykowski of the SETI Institute. The project will organize a global network of citizen scientists equipped with standardized small-aperture telescopes. Participants will conduct follow-up observations of cometary outbursts and small moving bodies, including comets, near-Earth asteroids and main-belt asteroids. Their global distribution and twilight observations will complement professional surveys. The project will also develop automated image-processing systems and distribute alerts about objects of interest across the network.
Science Activation projects
NASA’s Science Activation Program (SciAct) supports competitively selected, collaborative teams that broaden the impact of NASA science. SciAct teams connect people and communities—including many who might not otherwise engage with NASA—with NASA data and experts, local partnerships and authentic science experiences.
Seven teams selected in the latest competition will involve learners directly in citizen-science activities related to NASA research priorities. Several other teams will incorporate citizen-science or community-science projects, in which research is led by and focused on specific communities.
The selected projects include:
“Growing Beyond Earth: Science Activation Through Distributed Space Crop Research” is led by Principal Investigator Carl Lewis of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Inc. Humans traveling to or living in space will need a reliable food supply. Growing Beyond Earth trains and equips middle- and high-school classrooms to conduct experiments on seeds and crops being evaluated as potential space food.
“Sungrazer 2.0: From Armchair Discovery to Data-Driven Comet Science” is led by Principal Investigator MaryKay Severino of the ARISA Lab, with science lead Karl Battams of the Naval Research Laboratory. The original Sungrazer Project began in 2006 in response to citizen scientists seeking verification of comet discoveries. Since then, its volunteers have identified 5,204 comets and counting—the majority of known comets. Sungrazer 2.0 will invite new audiences to search for comets in images from NASA’s SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) and STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) missions.
“Discovering the SPARC: Space Physics through Amateur Radio Communications” is led by Principal Investigator Nathaniel Frissell of the University of Scranton. Since 2017, amateur-radio operators in the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation (HamSCI) community have studied Earth’s ionosphere through carefully designed investigations of how radio signals bounce off this high, ionized layer of the atmosphere. The project will bring hands-on space-weather science to communities across the country using amateur-radio equipment and will enroll high schools in a national research network.
“Telescopes for All: Promoting audience engagement with NASA science via participatory data experiences using robotic telescopes” is led by Principal Investigator Mary Dussault of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. The project will expand public access to 22 user-friendly professional robotic telescopes. Participants will be able to observe and analyze objects and contribute to NASA-aligned research, including the search for and study of exoplanets and other citizen-science projects.
“Researchers Inspiring Public Participation in Lake Education and Science (RIPPLES)” is led by Principal Investigator Sarah Yelton and science lead Tamlin Pavelsky, both of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Working with the Lake Observations by Citizen Scientists and Satellites (LOCSS) project, the team will expand participation in monitoring lake and reservoir levels. Submitted observations will help validate measurements such as those collected by NASA’s SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) mission.
“ARK (Antarctic Resilience and Knowledge): A Collaborative Network for Discovery and Education of Antarctica’s Iconic Species and their Changing Habitats” is led by Principal Investigator Sharon Stammerjohn of the University of Colorado, Boulder. Volunteers will examine NASA’s very high-resolution satellite images of Antarctica to study and monitor habitat changes affecting penguin, seal and whale populations. Scientists will validate the observations, while machine-assisted detection tools will expand researchers’ analytical capacity and build public understanding of polar ecosystems.
“Arctic Learning and Engagement with NASA Data for Community Solutions (Arctic LENS)” is led by Principal Investigator Katie Spellman of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Alaskans will contribute seasonal environmental observations—including snow, ice, aurora, spring ice-out and green-up data—in support of NASA missions such as FORTE (Arctic Coastlines: Frontlines of Rapidly Transforming Ecosystems), SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography), PACE (Phytoplankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) and Landsat.
NASA also provides information about citizen-science awards from previous years.
New NASA citizen-science projects launched in 2026. Top row, left to right: Galaxy Zoo: Tidal Tails, Artifact Inspector, CoCoRaHS. Middle row: Spiral Graph, Cluster Buster, Backyard Worlds: Binaries, Galaxy Zoo: Clump Scout Two. Bottom row: Overlap Zoo, Impact Flash! and Shock Detectives.
Source: science.nasa.gov