---
title: "Zooniverse"
chunk: 1/1
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zooniverse"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:16:21.065704+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Zooniverse is a global platform for people-powered research, also known as participatory science or citizen science. It is a collaboration between Chicago’s Adler Planetarium, the University of Oxford, and the University of Minnesota. It is home to some of the Internet's largest, most popular and most successful citizen science projects.


== Background ==
The organization grew from the original Galaxy Zoo project and now hosts dozens of projects which allow volunteers to participate in crowdsourced scientific research. It has headquarters at Oxford University and the Adler Planetarium. Unlike many early internet-based citizen science projects (such as SETI@home) which used spare computer processing power to analyse data, known as volunteer computing, Zooniverse projects require the active participation of human volunteers to complete research tasks. Projects have been drawn from disciplines including astronomy, ecology, cell biology, humanities, and climate science.
As of 14 February 2014, the Zooniverse community consisted of more than 1 million registered volunteers. By March 2025, the number had risen to over 2.7 million. The volunteers are often collectively referred to as "Zooites".  The data collected from the various projects has led to the publication of more than 450 peer-reviewed research publications. A daily news website called 'The Daily Zooniverse' provides information on the different projects under the Zooniverse umbrella, and has a presence on social media.
The founder and former principal investigator (P.I.) of the project, Chris Lintott, published a book called The Crowd & the Cosmos: Adventures in the Zooniverse in 2019. In September 2023 the role of P.I. was taken over by Laura Trouille, VP of Science Engagement at the Adler Planetarium, who was co-P.I. for Zooniverse from 2015 to 2023.


== Project Builder ==
Zooniverse supports Project Builder, a tool that allows anyone to create their own project by uploading a dataset of images, video files or sound files. In Project Builder a Project Owner creates a workflow for the projects, a tutorial, a field guide and the talk forum of the Project and can add collaborators, researchers and moderators to their project. The moderators for example will have partial administrator rights in the talk, but cannot change anything concerning the workflow.


== Zooniverse Mobile App ==
Only certain kinds of projects can be enabled on Zooniverse mobile app (Android & iOS).


== Projects ==


=== Art projects ===


=== Space projects ===


=== Nature and climate projects ===


=== Biology Projects ===


=== Humanities projects ===


=== Physics projects ===


== Retired projects ==


== See also ==
Amateur exoplanet discoveries
9Spitch – Galaxy in the constellation CetusPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
AWI0005x3s – Red dwarf star in the constellation CarinaPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
LSPM J0207+3331 – Star in the constellation Taurus
Hanny's Voorwerp – Astronomical object appearing as a bright blob, discovered by Hanny van Arkel
Green Pea Galaxies – Possible type of luminous blue compact galaxy
K2-138 – Star in the constellation Aquarius
PH1b – Circumbinary Neptunian planet orbiting the Kepler-64 star system
Stargazing Live – Live BBC television programme
Tabby's Star – Star noted for unusual dimming events


== References ==
 Media related to Zooniverse at Wikimedia Commons