NASA has selected 19 new citizen science proposals that will put volunteers to work on tasks ranging from hunting free-floating planets to listening to plasma waves and mapping iron on the Moon. Twelve of the projects were chosen through the agency's Citizen Science Seed Funding Program, which supports scientists who want to build volunteer participation into their investigations.
The Citizen Science Seed Funding Program (CSSFP-25), run by NASA's Science Mission Directorate, supports scientists developing citizen science projects and aims to expand the pool of professional researchers who use volunteer techniques in their work. Twelve proposals were selected through the program in 2026, spanning astrophysics, heliophysics and planetary science.
The selections follow what NASA describes as a flood of volunteer science successes so far in 2026. The Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project reported that its volunteers have now discovered most of the known brown dwarfs, celestial objects similar to planets. The Zooniverse platform, supported by a NASA grant, passed 1 billion classifications. Several projects now use what NASA calls super intelligence (SI) techniques to amplify or extend volunteers' work, and more volunteers than ever are using SI to build their own data tools and help write scientific papers.
Four of the new astrophysics projects look beyond our solar system. The Rogue Worlds Project, led by Jacqueline Faherty of the American Museum of Natural History, will invite volunteers to search data from NASA's SPHEREx observatory, which is mapping the entire sky in near-infrared wavelengths, for free-floating planets and brown dwarfs in clusters of young stars. Kameswara Bharadwaj Mantha of the University of Missouri will have volunteers classify realistic mock images of galaxies to probe how galaxies merge and evolve. Overlap Zoo, led by Benne Holwerda of the University of Louisville, asks volunteers to spot rare overlapping galaxy pairs to reveal how much cosmic dust they contain, and is already live for volunteers to join. Planet Hunters Roman, led by Bernard Gaudi of Ohio State University, will invite volunteers to find exoplanets in data from NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope by the way the planets' gravity bends starlight.
Six projects examine the Sun's influence on Earth. The Space Weather UnderGround project, led by Hyunju Connor at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, will have volunteers set up and monitor their own low-cost magnetometers in Alaska to track disturbances in Earth's magnetosphere. Lauren Blum of the University of Colorado Boulder will turn plasma wave data into sound for volunteers to listen to and identify waves. Wenli Mo of Johns Hopkins University will invite volunteers to identify foreshock transients in data from NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, phenomena the agency says play a critical but poorly understood role in space weather. A project led by Muhammad Fraz Bashir of UCLA asks volunteers to match satellite measurements of energetic particles with ground-based wave measurements, work that could help scientists predict disruptions to GPS and increased radiation risks during space weather events. Gang Kai Poh of the Catholic University of America will have volunteers examine data from the Advanced Composition Explorer, Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter missions to study flows of energetic particles from the Sun, and Cynthia Lopez-Portela of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County will ask volunteers to spot features in images of the Sun's corona that can serve as tracers for the solar wind.
In planetary science, Karen Martirosyan of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley will lead volunteers in locating iron deposits in data from NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper mission, work that could help reveal how the Moon formed and aid future exploration. Ariel Graykowski of the SETI Institute proposes activating a global network of citizen scientists with standardized small-aperture telescopes to conduct follow-up observations of cometary outbursts and small moving bodies including near-Earth asteroids.
Analysis
Why This Matters
- Volunteers get direct access to data from major missions such as SPHEREx, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and the Magnetospheric Multiscale fleet, and their classifications feed into published research.
- Several projects have practical stakes: better understanding of space weather could improve predictions of GPS disruptions and radiation risks, and locating lunar iron could inform future Moon base construction.
- NASA's 2026 tallies, including most known brown dwarfs from one volunteer project and 1 billion classifications on Zooniverse, show citizen science producing measurable research output.
Background
NASA has long run citizen science programs in which the public classifies images, spots objects or runs instruments for real research projects. The Citizen Science Seed Funding Program, run through the agency's Science Mission Directorate, is designed to help scientists develop such projects and to broaden the number of professional researchers using volunteer techniques. The new selections are the next round from that program, following what NASA calls a strong year of volunteer achievements in 2026.
What to Watch
- Overlap Zoo is already live and open for volunteers; the other new projects will come online as research teams prepare their platforms and data.
- The Rogue Worlds Project and Planet Hunters Roman depend on observations from SPHEREx and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, so volunteer activity will scale with those missions' data flows.
- Whether super intelligence (SI) tools keep expanding volunteers' role: NASA says volunteers are already using them to build data tools and help write papers, which could widen the public's part of the research pipeline.
Checked
9 claims in this story checked against 1 source: 7 supported.
Show each claim
- SupportedNASA selected 19 new citizen science proposals in 2026.NASA: “NASA’s Science Mission Directorate has selected nineteen proposals from research teams in 2026”
- Partly supportedTwelve projects won seed funding.NASA: “Twelve new proposals to this program were selected.”
- SupportedThe 12 selected proposals came through a program that supports scientists developing citizen science projects and expands the pool of professional researchers using citizen science techniques.NASA: “aims to support scientists and other experts to develop citizen science projects and expand the pool of professional scientists who use citizen science techniques in their science investigations.”
- SupportedNASA described 2026 as having a flood of volunteer science successes so far.NASA: “So far, 2026 has seen a flood of successes for volunteers who do NASA science”
- SupportedBackyard Worlds: Planet 9 volunteers have discovered most of the known brown dwarfs.NASA: “The Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project announced that their project volunteers have now discovered most of the known brown dwarfs”
- Partly supportedThe Zooniverse platform passed 1 billion classifications.NASA: “The Zooniverse platform, with grant from NASA, reached a milestone of 1 billion classifications.”
- SupportedNASA’s SPHEREx is mapping the entire sky in near-infrared wavelengths, and volunteers will search its data for free-floating planets and brown dwarfs in clusters of young stars.NASA: “This project will invite you to search data from NASA’s SPHEREx ... mission to find free-floating planets and brown dwarfs in clusters of young stars. The SPHEREx space observatory mapping the entire sky in near-infrared wavelengths.”
- SupportedVolunteers in the plasma-wave project will listen to sound made from data and identify waves in Earth’s magnetosphere.NASA: “This project will turn data from this dynamic zone into sound signals. You will be invited to listen in to identify waves in the Earth’s magnetosphere.”
- SupportedThe Moon iron project will use data from NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper to locate iron deposits, helping researchers understand how the Moon formed and aid future exploration.NASA: “This project will invite you to help locate iron deposits in data from NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper mission to help understand how the Moon formed and to aid future exploration.”
