NASA has selected 19 new citizen-science proposals that will invite members of the public to help researchers study space, Earth and biological systems. The portfolio spans amateur observations, data classification, environmental monitoring and tools designed to make scientific information easier to explore.
Twelve projects were chosen through Citizen Science Seed Funding and seven through NASA’s Science Activation programme. The selections do not turn every idea into an immediate public project; teams will develop methods, partnerships and participation plans before or as opportunities open.
What will volunteers be able to study?
The selected work ranges from searches for rogue worlds using data from the SPHEREx mission to galaxy mergers, Roman Space Telescope microlensing and small bodies in the Solar System. Other teams will work on comets, amateur radio observations, robotic telescopes and ways to understand space-weather measurements.
Earth-focused proposals include lake observations connected with the SWOT satellite, monitoring Arctic change and identifying Antarctic species. Further projects cover lunar iron, magnetometer networks, space-weather sonification and crops intended for space environments.
Why does NASA use citizen science?
Modern missions produce more images and measurements than small research teams can inspect alone. Volunteers can identify patterns, make observations from places professional networks do not cover and help test how scientific tools work outside a laboratory.
The strongest projects treat participants as contributors rather than passive audiences. Clear instructions, quality checks and feedback are essential because public participation does not remove the need for reproducible methods. It can, however, expand the scale and geographical reach of a study.
How can interested people take part?
NASA maintains a citizen-science portal listing live opportunities. Availability will vary as the new teams move from selection into development. People do not necessarily need specialist equipment: some projects use web-based classification, while others benefit from telescopes, sensors or local field observations.
The 2026 selections show how widely the model is now being applied. Citizen science is no longer limited to sorting astronomical images; it can connect spacecraft data, environmental measurements and community knowledge in one research programme.
Source: NASA’s 28 October 2026 selection announcement.
Image: Matthew Ansley via Unsplash.