Volunteers on Zooniverse, the online platform for people-powered research, have contributed 1 billion classifications, the project team announced on its blog on June 29. Since Galaxy Zoo launched in 2007, more than 3 million volunteers across 160 countries have taken part in more than 550 projects, the team says, and it estimates the billion classifications add up to around 2,000 years of full-time effort. The Adler Planetarium, the University of Oxford and the University of Minnesota run the platform.
NASA, which supports Zooniverse as a grantee, says 31 NASA-sponsored projects on the platform drew 120 million classifications from 324,000 volunteers since 2020, through projects such as Planet Hunters TESS, Daily Minor Planet and Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, and that those projects led to 96 scientific publications. “One billion classifications represent far more than a number; it's one billion moments of curiosity transformed into meaningful contributions to research,” Laura Trouille, Zooniverse’s principal investigator and vice president of science engagement at the Adler Planetarium, told NASA.
The team’s post lists results it credits to volunteers, including the 2009 discovery of small, bright green galaxies nicknamed “Green Peas,” and Penguin Watch evidence that in 2018 led the government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands to expand protection for its marine protected area.