"The wisdom of the crowd"

The Zooniverse is the world's largest and most popular platform for people-powered research. This research is made possible by volunteers—millions of people around the world who come together to assist professional researchers. Our goal is to enable research that would not be possible, or practical, otherwise. Zooniverse research results in new discoveries, datasets useful to the wider research community, and many publications.

Anyone can be a researcher

You don't need any specialized background, training, or expertise to participate in Zooniverse projects. We make it easy for anyone to contribute to real academic research, on their own computer, at their convenience. You'll be able to study authentic data gathered by researchers, like images of faraway galaxies, historical records and diaries, or videos of animals in their natural habitats. By participating in projects, you'll help contribute to our understanding of the world, the universe, and more. With our wide-ranging and ever-expanding suite of projects, which cover many disciplines and topics across the sciences and humanities, there's a place for anyone and everyone to explore, learn, and have fun in the Zooniverse. To volunteer, visit the Projects page, choose one you like the look of, and get started.

We accelerate important research by working together

The major challenge of 21st century research is dealing with the flood of information we can now collect about the world around us. Computers can help, but in many fields the human ability for pattern recognition—and our ability to be surprised—makes us superior. With the help of Zooniverse volunteers, researchers can analyze their information more quickly and accurately than would otherwise be possible, getting to exciting results more quickly. Your effort saves time and resources, advances the ability of computers to do the same tasks, and leads to faster progress and understanding of the world. Our projects combine contributions from multiple individual volunteers, relying on a version of the 'wisdom of the crowds' to produce reliable and accurate results. Having many people look at the data often leads to better estimates of how likely we are to make an error. The products of Zooniverse projects are often exactly what's needed to make progress in many fields of research.

Volunteers and professionals make real discoveries together. Zooniverse projects are constructed with the aim of converting volunteers' efforts into measurable results. In some cases, Zooniverse volunteers have even made completely unexpected and significant discoveries. A substantial amount of this research takes place on Talk, the Zooniverse discussion boards, where volunteers work together with research team members and each other. These boards are integrated within each project to allow for everything from quick hash-tagging to in-depth collaborative analysis. There is also a central Zooniverse Talk board for general chat and discussion about platform-wide matters. We encourage all users to join the conversation on Talk for more in-depth participation.

THE ZOONIVERSE WORKS

Green Pea Galaxies

New Exoplanets Located

An Earlier Use of 'White Lie'

Boyajian's Star

How It Works

People-powered research

As a participant:
• Find a project that interests you
• Learn the process of classifying that project
• Submit your classification and help with real research!
• Generate an official certificate verifying your efforts on the platform

As a researcher:
• Build your project using the Zooniverse Project Builder
• Submit your project for approval
• Launch your project and engage with volunteers on Talk while the classifications come in
• Download your data and publish your results!

Explore projects

Build a project

Check Out Our Mobile App

Discover, teach, and learn - anywhere

Bring the Zooniverse with you. Download the app for iOS and Android devices.

Our Highlights

Memorable projects over the years

Since 2007, Zooniverse projects have led to many unexpected and scientifically significant discoveries and many peer-reviewed publications. All of this would have been impossible if it weren’t for our global community of Zooniverse participants engaged in these projects alongside the research teams.

These ‘Into the Zooniverse’ books commemorate and honor the efforts of everyone involved, providing just a glimpse into the ways Zooniverse community members have a real impact on the world around them. Each book highlights a subset of projects that were active that year.

Available for purchase at Blurb.com