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On February 7, 1999,
NASA successfully launched a
spacecraft called Stardust
into space.
The trajectory of this spacecraft
was planned very carefully
so that 5 years later,
it would closely encounter a
comet called Wild 2.
During the fly-by,
dust particles from the comet
flew towards the Stardust spacecraft
and were trapped in a
material called aerogel.
And in 2006,
the sample capsule holding these
dust particles was returned to Earth.
Scientists now had samples of
interstellar dust - over 700,000
sections of aerogel,
which each had to be carefully analyzed
with a microscope to determine
what was interstellar dust
and what was just a bump in the aerogel.
In theory, finding the dust was easy,
but with so much aerogel
it would have taken an unrealistically
long period of time for the team
to get through such a
massive amount of data.
So they decided to open
the project up to the public.
Naming the program Stardust@home,
scientists called on volunteers from
all over the world to go online 
and help to comb through images
to search for those
interstellar dust tracks.
It gave non-scientists the opportunity
to participate in cutting-edge
scientific research
and potentially even get their name
into a published research paper.
Stardust@home was not the first
so-called “citizen science” project,
and it certainly wasn’t the last.
Citizen science allows scientists
to engage the public in their research
and often saves time and money
that can now be devoted to
further advancing their research.
And citizen science allows the public to
contribute to real, cutting-edge science
in ways that are meaningful to them.
There are so many different
citizen science projects
you can participate in.
You could identify the shape
and characteristics of faraway galaxies
or monitor birds and squirrels
in your own backyard
or analyze the biodiversity
of a local metro park.
You could classify seismic events
like earthquakes and tremors,
identify lions, hyenas, and wildebeests
on live cameras in the Serengeti,
or transcribe military service records
of African American
Civil War soldiers...
all from the comfort of your own home!
Citizen science is a fun way to
participate in a group effort
to advance science.
Check out the description of this video
for a few examples of the many
citizen science resources
available to you.
Why not take up science
as your new hobby?
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remember to like, subscribe,
and comment below.
And for more information on COSI,
Columbus, Ohio's Center of
Science and Industry,
visit cosi.org.
