Citizen Science
Science Mission Directorate’s citizen engagement focus will utilize online platforms such as social media, live-streaming, and blogging to enable citizen participation in a variety of initiatives, including Earth Science Airborne campaigns, the Venus Transit, SOFIA Airborne Ambassadors and Kepler’s search for earth-like planets. Citizen scientists have helped answer serious scientific questions, provided vital data to the astronomical community, and discovered thousands of objects including nebulas, supernovas, and gamma ray bursts. These efforts will engage the public at the intersection of science and technology to encourage better solutions, broader scientific applications of NASA data, and enhanced STEM educational opportunities.
Current activities include:
GLOBE at Night
Calling all Earthlings! Take a few minutes to get involved in the GLOBE at Night campaign to preserve dark skies! GLOBE at Night is a citizen-science campaign open to people all over the world to raise awareness of the impact of light pollution by inviting citizen-scientists to measure their night sky brightness and report their observations to a website from a computer or smart phone. Light pollution threatens not only our “right to starlight”, but can affect energy consumption, wildlife and health. Through 2011, people in 115 countries contributed 66,000 measurements, making GLOBE at Night one of the most successful light pollution awareness campaigns to date. Please join us to participate in the 2012 campaign an hour after sunset till about 10pm April 11 through 20. For information and resources, visit us at www.globeatnight.org.
HiWISH
You can help decide where the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will point its camera, HiRISE, next! Suggest a new target or browse the targets already in our database, including those for past HiRISE images. Where should HiRISE take a picture?
Lunar Impact Observations
NASA needs your help to monitor the rates and sizes of large meteoroids striking the moon’s dark side. This data will help engineers design lunar spacecraft, habitats, vehicles and extra-vehicular activity (EVA) suits to protect human explorers from the stresses of the lunar environment.
My NASA Data
Mentoring and inquiry using NASAData for Atmospheric and earth science for Teachers and Amateurs (MY NASA DATA) is an activity to enable K-12 teachers and students, as well as citizen scientists, to explore the large volumes of data that NASA collects about the Earth from space. Students use scientific inquiry and math skills as they access and display microsets of the Earth System.
Night Sky Network
Whether you’re just getting started or observe the skies at every opportunity, you’ll find helpful this list of links from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/. The website includes resources for amateurs, students and educators.
Citizen Science Software Tools
JPL’s Solar System Dynamics Group provides the following software tools for the sky observer:
- Ephemeris Generator for all bodies in the solar system including comets and asteroids.
- Small Body Orbital Elements provides the orbital elements for numbered asteroids, unnumbered asteroids and comets.
- Object Identification – Given a date, location and region of sky, find all comets and asteroids matching the constraints within the region.
- What’s Observable Tonight? – Given an observation date, location and other constraints, find all asteroids and comets that are observable on that night.
Activity goal:
Increase the number of students and citizen scientists involved in Sun-Earth Day due to the synergy among the larger Transit of Venus community, including the amateur astronomers and the Goddard Space Flight Center. (1 year)
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