NASA’s Science Mission Directorate selected 19 proposals in 2026 to create new opportunities for the public to participate in NASA science, the agency said. The selections span astrophysics, heliophysics and planetary science, and include education-focused teams that will connect communities with NASA data and experts.

The agency said the awards matter because they extend NASA science through volunteer contributions and bring authentic research experiences to people and communities that might not otherwise engage. NASA highlighted recent volunteer milestones as context, including the Zooniverse platform reaching one billion classifications with a NASA grant and volunteers contributing to scientific papers.

Under the Citizen Science Seed Funding Program, NASA selected 12 proposals. In astrophysics, projects include the Rogue Worlds Project, led by Jacqueline Faherty at the American Museum of Natural History, which will ask volunteers to search data from NASA’s SPHEREx mission for free‑floating planets and brown dwarfs in young star clusters. Another project, led by Kameswara Bharadwaj Mantha at the University of Missouri, will use volunteer classifications of realistic galaxy images to study how galaxies merge and evolve over time. Overlap Zoo, led by Benne Holwerda at the University of Louisville, will have volunteers find and characterize overlapping galaxy pairs to measure dust; NASA said Overlap Zoo is live. A project led by Bernard Gaudi at Ohio State University will invite volunteers to spot exoplanets in data from the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope through signs of gravitational microlensing.

In heliophysics, six projects will engage volunteers in monitoring and interpreting space weather. A project led by Hyunju Connor at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center will deploy a low‑cost magnetometer array with citizen scientists in Alaska to track disturbances in Earth’s magnetic field. Lauren Blum at the University of Colorado Boulder will lead an effort to sonify plasma wave data from the edge of Earth’s magnetosphere so volunteers can identify wave patterns by listening. Wenli Mo at Johns Hopkins University will invite volunteers to identify foreshock transients in Magnetospheric Multiscale mission data. Muhammad Fraz Bashir at the University of California, Los Angeles will lead a project matching satellite particle measurements with ground‑based wave observations to improve understanding of GPS disruptions and radiation risks during space weather events. A project led by Gang Kai Poh at the Catholic University of America will engage volunteers with data from NASA’s Advanced Composition Explorer, Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter to study energetic particle flows from the Sun. Cynthia Lopez‑Portela at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County will lead a project to spot features in images of the Sun’s corona that trace the solar wind.

In planetary science, a project led by Karen Martirosyan at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley will map lunar iron abundance using Moon Mineralogy Mapper data to inform future use of Moon materials. Another, led by Ariel Graykowski at the SETI Institute, will build a worldwide network of small telescopes operated by citizen scientists to monitor cometary outbursts and small bodies and to share alerts and automated image processing.

NASA also selected seven teams under its Science Activation Program to connect learners directly with citizen science tied to agency priorities. Projects include Growing Beyond Earth, led by Carl Lewis at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, to run classroom crop experiments for space food research. Sungrazer 2.0, led by MaryKay Severino of ARISA Lab with science lead Karl Battams of the Naval Research Laboratory, will expand public comet hunting using SOHO and STEREO images; NASA said volunteers in the original Sungrazer Project have identified 5,204 comets, “the majority of known comets.” The SPARC project, led by Nathaniel Frissell at the University of Scranton, will use amateur radio to study Earth’s ionosphere and enroll high schools in a national research network.

Other SciAct teams include Telescopes for All, led by Mary Dussault at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, which will broaden access to 22 professional robotic telescopes for research such as exoplanet studies. The RIPPLES project at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, led by Sarah Yelton with science lead Tamlin Pavelsky, will expand public monitoring of lake and reservoir levels to validate data from NASA’s Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission. The ARK project, led by Sharon Stammerjohn at the University of Colorado Boulder, will enlist volunteers to examine high‑resolution Antarctic imagery to track habitat changes affecting penguins, seals and whales. Arctic LENS, led by Katie Spellman at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, will invite Alaskans to report seasonal environmental changes in support of NASA missions including FORTE, SWOT, PACE and Landsat.

NASA did not disclose funding amounts, timelines for project launches, or how many volunteers it expects to participate.