SciStarter’s 2022 Holiday Gift Guide Is Here!

The best gift is one that keeps on giving, and these nifty tools and resources certainly fit the bill! We’ve got useful gifts for birdwatchers, skygazers and weather-trackers, as well as books that will inspire anyone’s curiosity. Even better, many of these ideas tie directly in with one or more citizen science projects on SciStarter. … Read more “SciStarter’s 2022 Holiday Gift Guide Is Here!”

Categories: Affiliate Tools, Animals, Apps, Astronomy & Space, Biology, Birds, book, Book Review, Citizen Science, Climate & Weather, Education, Environment, Field Guide to Citizen Science, Nature & Outdoors, Newsletter

Photo of an Earth-viewing area of the International Space Station with holiday decorations.

Citizen Science Holiday Gift Guide

Looking for a special gift for the citizen science lover in your life? You’ve come to the right place! In this podcast, we share expert picks for over a dozen unique gifts your friends and family will enjoy while they help scientists conduct important research. Listen: https://citscipod.podbean.com/e/scistarter-holiday-gift-guide-live/ Projects and websites featured in this episode include: … Read more “Citizen Science Holiday Gift Guide”

Categories: Astronomy & Space, Biology, book, Citizen Science, Climate & Weather, Ecology & Environment, Environment, Field Guide to Citizen Science, Nature & Outdoors, Other, podcast

NASA is Unleashing Amateur Astronomers to Help Study the Night Sky

  On Saturday, May 22, NASA scientists will walk amateur astronomers through how they can use their telescopes to get involved with real science. Studying the entire night sky is no small task. Even with a host of telescopes and satellites, astronomers can’t watch every piece of the sky all the time. But scientists want … Read more “NASA is Unleashing Amateur Astronomers to Help Study the Night Sky”

Categories: Astronomy & Space

How Citizen Scientists Are Finding Exoplanets with NASA’s TESS Spacecraft

NASA is recruiting citizen science volunteers to help astronomers discover exoplanets hidden in observations from one of its space telescopes. A pair of citizen science projects, Planet Hunters TESS and Planet Patrol, are asking users to help sort through images from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and separate out potential exoplanet signals from those of planet … Read more “How Citizen Scientists Are Finding Exoplanets with NASA’s TESS Spacecraft”

Categories: Astronomy & Space

4 NASA Citizen Science Projects to do in the Classroom

Across the country, many kids have recently gone back to school for the first time since the pandemic started, even as a host of others are still learning at home. As we look for ways to get back into hands-on learning, citizen science offers ready-made projects for kids and adults alike.  These science experiments and … Read more “4 NASA Citizen Science Projects to do in the Classroom”

Categories: Astronomy & Space

Help Fight Light Pollution With a Science Experiment From Your Local Library

For most of human history, we slept under the stars. Instead of staring at electronic screens, our ancestors watched the light from the heavens. Things have changed dramatically in recent decades. Seven out of 10 people living in the U.S. today have never seen the Milky Way. Light pollution from street lights, homes, businesses and … Read more “Help Fight Light Pollution With a Science Experiment From Your Local Library”

Categories: Astronomy & Space, Other

These Women Were First to Map the Cosmos. Volunteers are Bringing Their Work to Light

More than 100 years ago, Harvard astronomer Edward Charles Pickering decided he was going to take a picture of the entire night sky. Or, rather, many thousands of pictures, each capturing a tiny rectangle of the universe as seen through a telescope. Today, these photos survive on hundreds of thousands of glass plates at the … Read more “These Women Were First to Map the Cosmos. Volunteers are Bringing Their Work to Light”

Categories: Astronomy & Space

Citizen Scientists Have Found Dozens of ‘Failed Stars’ Near Earth

Sometimes the old methods truly are the best methods. When astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930, it was the result of countless hours spent straining his eyes at a machine called a blink comparator. Using it, Tombaugh could flip rapidly back and forth between two images of the night sky taken at slightly different … Read more “Citizen Scientists Have Found Dozens of ‘Failed Stars’ Near Earth”

Categories: Astronomy & Space, Other

Explore Space with SciStarter

As the days get shorter and the nights get longer, it's prime stargazing time! To celebrate, we're featuring citizen science projects ideal for the astronomically-inclined, both those who love going out into the cool night air and those who prefer exploring from the comfort of their easy chairs. Either way, the cosmos await! … Read more

Categories: Astronomy & Space, Newsletter

How do Planets Form? NASA Wants Your Help Finding Out

How long does it take planets to form in solar systems? Since 2014, tens of thousands of volunteers have helped NASA try to answer this question by looking at telescope images of solar systems as their protoplanetary disks are still forming. NASA’s Disk Detectives is a citizen science project that enlists members of the public … Read more “How do Planets Form? NASA Wants Your Help Finding Out”

Categories: Astronomy & Space