Virtual Citizen Science!

I was introduced to Zooniverse through my classmates and teacher. Zooniverse is an online site that connects researcher with people who are interesting in helping with research being conducted. Through Zooniverse there are hundreds of volunteering projects through which ordinary people can get involved with. 

I was able to get involved with two projects that I really enjoyed. One of them was called Chicago Wildlife Watch. The main objective of the project was to observe how wildlife interacts with out city. This was done through captured camera footage planted in various places around the city. Volunteers are given these photos and asked to identify the animals and sort them by species. During my time volunteering I was able to identify various animals and see them interact with our environment, which is not a very common sight in the city, specifically downtown Chicago where I spend most of my time. Identifying the species was difficult sometimes, especially in blurry pictures, but the guides and descriptions provided aided me greatly. Time passed really fast as I tried to identify the species and it was an enjoyable experience. Below I compiled some of my favorite screenshots from cool species I identified. 

 

The second project I was able to help out with was Fishing for Jellyfish Galaxies. Throughout this project I was able to help astronomers identify Jellyfish galaxies in order to help them learn more about our universe. Jellyfish galaxies are galaxies that leave behind trails that look like jellyfish tentacles. The tentacles are actually clouds of pressurized gas. Pictures from satellites were provided to participants in order to identify them. Oftentimes the Jellyfish galaxies usually left behind distinctive trails of gast and showed signs of disturbance. It was tricky to identify them when the satellites pictures were blurry but most of the time the images captured beautiful sights of our universe. It was also tricky to distinguish them from other galaxies that were merging simply because both of them showed signs of disturbance. The main differentiating factor between the two was the shape of the center and the trail left behind. Most of the time one singular center with a clear blue trail(s) meant it was a jellyfish galaxy. This project was very fun to work on an below I've provided a slideshow with screenshots of my experiences. 

 

Overall I really enjoyed volunteering on Zooniverse projects. There was a wide variety of projects I was free to chose from and it allowed me to pick very flexible hours since all I had to do was open up my computer, open up the site, and contribute! I was able to volunteer for 14 hours combined and  I will continue to do so in my free time simply because I find these research projects fascinating.