Be it baking or needlepoint, since the start of the outbreak, quarantine has been encouraging many people to take up new hobbies as a means to keep busy and make their time at home a little more enjoyable. But what if there was a hobby that would help stave off boredom during self-isolation while also benefit the scientific community at the same time?
Well, guess what? It turns out that the pandemic can be a great opportunity for people to get involved in citizen science projects, in which non-scientists can lend their time to a sort of crowd-sourced research project.
One of them is the Galaxy Zoo — a project where astronomers capture new images of outer space, and participants help classify any galaxies that pop up, thus actively contributing to our broader understanding of the Universe.
Surveying the night sky can give astronomers an insurmountable pile of new information — and enlisting an army of volunteers can be a crucial part of figuring out what’s actually going on.
If you would like to be part of this amazing initiative and become a galactic explorer while cooped up at home, don’t hesitate to learn more about the project here.