Adler Planetarium

BUILDING THE NASA CITIZEN SCIENCE COMMUNITY WITH THE ZOONIVERSE

CDI-TYPE II: ZOONIVERSE - CONQUERING THE DATA FLOOD WITH A TRANSFORMATIVE PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN CITIZEN SCIENTISTS AND MACHINES

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: FRAMEWORKS: BUILDING THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY CITIZEN SCIENCE FRAMEWORK TO ENABLE SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY ACROSS DISCIPLINES -TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY RESEARCH IS ENABLED BY THE AVAILABILITY OF VAST AMOUNTS OF DATA, COLLECTED ACROSS A WIDE RANGE OF TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL SCALES, OFTEN IN REAL TIME. ENTIRE FLEETS OF SATELLITES, DRONES AND OTHER DEVICES MONITOR THE EARTH AT EVER-INCREASING RESOLUTION, ADDING TO THE ENORMOUS CORPUS OF MAPS AND METADATA THAT ENABLE SCIENCES FROM GEOLOGY TO BIODIVERSITY. WHILE CITIZEN SCIENCE - OR CROWDSOURCING SCIENCE - HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY LEVERAGED OVER THE PAST SEVERAL DECADES TO CLOSE THE ANALYSIS GAP ARISING FROM LARGE AMOUNTS OF DATA, THE SHEER SCALE AND COMPLEXITY OF THESE NEW DATA SETS PRESENTS NEW CHALLENGES. THIS PROJECT ADDRESSES THESE CHALLENGES THROUGH NOVEL CITIZEN SCIENCE CYBERINFRASTRUCTURE (CSCI) WHERE NEW TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES, INCLUDING TEAMING HUMANS WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI), ARE BEING DEVELOPED TO ENABLE RESEARCHERS TO EFFICIENTLY EXTRACT THE BEST RESULTS FROM LARGE AND COMPLEX DATA SETS. THIS EFFORT INCORPORATES MAPPING, MACHINE LEARNING, AND DATA SHARING INNOVATIONS IN BIODIVERSITY, GEOSCIENCE, AND ASTRONOMY RESEARCH AND EXPANDS THE CAPACITY OF RESEARCH COMMUNITIES ACROSS A WIDE RANGE OF DISCIPLINES TO USE CITIZEN SCIENCE AS A SUITABLE, OPEN AND SUSTAINABLE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. THIS PROJECT LEVERAGES NSF-SUPPORTED CYBERINFRASTRUCTURE, INCLUDING THE ZOONIVERSE CITIZEN SCIENCE PLATFORM WITH ITS NEARLY THREE MILLION VOLUNTEERS, TO PROVIDE A NOVEL CYBERINFRASTRUCTURE BY: (1) INTEGRATING MAPPING INFRASTRUCTURE INTO ZOONIVERSE TO ACCELERATE ACCURATE PROCESSING AND CURATION OF OFTEN COMPLEX DATA SETS FOR GEOSCIENCE AND BIODIVERSITY PROJECTS; (2) PROVIDING AN INCUBATOR HUB FOR RESEARCHERS AND DEVELOPERS TO DESIGN AND DEPLOY INNOVATIVE CITIZEN SCIENCE PROJECTS WITH A FAST PRODUCTION TURN-AROUND PARTICULARLY FOR AI TRAINING; AND (3) PROVIDING CYBER-PATHWAYS TO EXISTING CYBERINFRASTRUCTURE, CREATING DOCUMENTATION FOR ZOONIVERSE PROJECTS TO RESPONSIBLY DEPOSIT THEIR DATA INTO APPROPRIATE REPOSITORIES, AND FACILITATING WORKSHOPS FOR ZOONIVERSE PROJECT TEAMS TO DEVELOP BEST PRACTICES FOR DATA AND MODEL SHARING. TO ENSURE WIDE DISSEMINATION OF THE NEW CSCI, A STRONG COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE IS ENGAGED AND SUPPORTED THROUGHOUT THE PROJECT EFFORT. THE PROJECT IS LED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA IN COLLABORATION WITH THE ADLER PLANETARIUM AND THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, AS CORE ZOONIVERSE INSTITUTIONS AND ASTROPHYSICS EXPERTISE, AND JOINED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA AND THE FLORIDA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY WITH EXPERTISE IN BIODIVERSITY, MUSEUM SPECIMEN COLLECTIONS, AND DATA REPOSITORIES, AS WELL AS NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY WITH EXPERTISE IN EARTH SCIENCES, MAPPING CYBERINFRASTRUCTURE, AND THE STUDY OF THE ANTARCTICA?S DRY VALLEYS. AS THE LARGEST CITIZEN SCIENCE PLATFORM, AND WITH KEY TOOLS FOR HUMAN-IN-THE-LOOP DATA ANALYSIS TASKS, THE ZOONIVERSE IS UNIQUELY POSITIONED TO DEVELOP SKILLS AND BEST PRACTICES TO LOWER THE BARRIER FOR RESEARCH TEAMS TO RESPONSIBLY SHARE DATA AND MODELS. THIS IS CARRIED OUT THROUGH FACT-FINDING AND DEMONSTRATION WITH SEVERAL KEY GROUPS WHO ARE EXEMPLARS IN THE DATA AND MODEL SHARING ECOSYSTEM, INCLUDING GITHUB, THE NATIONAL SCIENCE DATA FABRIC (NSDF), THE GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY INFORMATION FACILITY (GBIF), AND OPEN SCIENCE CHAIN. THIS AWARD REFLECTS NSF'S STATUTORY MISSION AND HAS BEEN DEEMED WORTHY OF SUPPORT THROUGH EVALUATION USING THE FOUNDATION'S INTELLECTUAL MERIT AND BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERIA.- SUBAWARDS ARE PLANNED FOR THIS AWARD.

NATIONAL LEADERSHIP GRANTS

ADLER PLANETARIUMS SPACE EXPLORATION CENTER EXPLORERS CLUB AND DEEP SPACE ADVENTURETHE ADLER PLANE

PLANETARIUM EQUIPMENTAS THE MUSEUM FACES THE CHALLENGE OF SAVING ITS HISTORIC THEATER, ADLER TRUSTEES AND STAFF ALSO ENVISION AN OPPORTUNITY TO DRAM

INVESTIGATING AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT WITH CITIZEN SCIENCE

WE PROPOSE TO CONDUCT AN AMBITIOUS PROGRAM OF NEAR-EARTH OBJECT (NEO) ASTROMETRIC FOLLOW-UP AND CHARACTERIZATION OBSERVATIONS WITH THE ASTROPHYSICAL

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: FRAMEWORK: SOFTWARE: HDR: BUILDING THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY CITIZEN SCIENCE FRAMEWORK TO ENABLE SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY ACROSS DISCIPLINES

E014042 - CLIMATE CHANGE AND ME: ENGAGING YOUNG PEOPLE WITH NASA DATA MISSIONS AND CAREERS THROUGH IMMERSIVE VISUALIZATIONS PLANETARIUM PROGRAMS AND VIRTUAL EXPERIENCES.

ENGAGING NON-SCIENCE MAJORS IN AUTHENTIC RESEARCH THROUGH CITIZEN SCIENCE

TEV STUDIES OF SUPERNOVAE POWERED REGIONS USING ADVANCED SHOWER ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES WITH THE VERITAS GAMMA-RAY OBSERVATORY

TEV STUDIES OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI AND STARBURST GALAXIES WITH THE VERITAS GAMMA-RAY OBSERVATORY

SOCS: COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: FOCUSING ATTENTION TO IMPROVE THE PERFORMANCE OF CITIZEN SCIENCE SYSTEMS: BEAUTIFUL IMAGES AND PERCEPTIVE OBSERVERS

ADLER PUBLIC EDUCATION FELLOWSHIPS

ADLER COLLECTIONS LIGHTING UPGRADE [THE PROPOSED PROJECT WILL REPLACE ALL EXISTING AGING LIGHTING IN THE ADLER PLANETARIUM GALLERY AND COLLECTIONS STORAGE SPACES WITH A NEW KETRA/LUTRON BRANDED, NETWORKED, FULLY PROGRAMMABLE LIGHTING SYSTEM THAT IS BOTH CONSERVATIONALLY BETTER FOR OBJECTS ON DISPLAY AND IN STORAGE, AND ALSO SIGNIFICANTLY MORE ENERGY AND COST EFFICIENT. THE NEW SYSTEM WILL ALLOW FOR LIGHTING ADJUSTMENTS TO BE MADE ON AN OBJECT, CASE, GALLERY, FLOOR, AND BUILDING LEVEL, AND ALLOW FOR ENERGY AND COST SAVING MEASURES SUCH AS OCCUPANCY SENSORS, OPEN/CLOSED LIGHTING THEMES, AUTOMATIC SHUTOFFS, AND BUILDING DIMMING CAPABILITIES. IT IS ESTIMATED THAT THE NEW SYSTEM WILL YIELD A ROUGHLY 40% REDUCTION IN INDOOR LIGHTING ENERGY COST AND ENERGY CONSUMPTION.]

THIS PROPOSAL BUILDS ON A HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL NASA-ZOONIVERSE PARTNERSHIP AND ADVANCES A STRATEGIC HIGH-IMPACT EFFORT TO SCALE THE INTEGRATION OF CITIZEN SCIENCE AND AI IN SUPPORT OF NASA'S SCIENCE PRIORITIES.

LEVERAGING CITIZEN SCIENCE FOR INFORMAL SCIENCE LEARNING

DIGITAL HUMANITIES LEADERSHIP THROUGH THE ADLER PLANETARIUM?S PRESERVATION, ENGAGEMENT, AND CROWDSOURCING INITIATIVES

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: HCC: SMALL: OPTIMIZING THE HUMAN-MACHINE SYSTEM FOR CITIZEN SCIENCE -THIS PROJECT INVESTIGATES STRATEGIES THAT COMBINE BOTH HUMAN AND MACHINE ATTENTION FOR IMPROVING HUMAN-MACHINE COLLABORATION FOR THE ANALYSIS OF LARGE, COMPLEX DATA SETS. OPEN-SOURCE PLATFORMS FOR ONLINE CITIZEN SCIENCE, SUCH AS THE ZOONIVERSE, NOW PROVIDE INFRASTRUCTURE TO INCORPORATE MACHINE LEARNING ALONGSIDE VOLUNTEER CLASSIFIERS ENABLING HUMAN-IN-THE-LOOP TECHNIQUES. CITIZEN SCIENCE IS AN ESTABLISHED METHOD FOR CARRYING OUT DISTRIBUTED ANALYSIS OF LARGE QUANTITIES OF DATA IN WHICH ONLINE VOLUNTEERS HELP WITH TASKS REQUIRING HUMAN PATTERN RECOGNITION. EXAMPLES INCLUDE IDENTIFYING SHAPES OF GALAXIES IN THE GALAXY ZOO PROJECT, DETERMINING ANIMAL SPECIES IN IMAGES TAKEN BY REMOTE CAMERAS IN THE SNAPSHOT SERENGETI PROJECT, OR HELPING TRANSCRIBE HANDWRITTEN TEXTS FROM HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS SUCH AS THE CIVIL WAR BLUEJACKETS PROJECT. HOWEVER, MUCH LARGER DATASETS ARE LOOMING ON THE HORIZON. DESIGNING A HUMAN-MACHINE SYSTEM TO ACCELERATE LABELING OF KNOWN CLASSES AT THE SAME TIME AS SOLVING THE PROBLEM OF DETECTING INTERESTING ANOMALIES (SUGGESTING NEW PHENOMENA) REQUIRES ANSWERING SEVERAL CRUCIAL RESEARCH QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW HUMANS AND MACHINES BEST COMPLEMENT ONE ANOTHER. ONE PROMISING DIRECTION IS SHOWING WHAT THE MACHINE ?THOUGHT? WAS ANOMALOUS WITHIN A GIVEN IMAGE TO VOLUNTEERS FOR FURTHER INSPECTION. ADDITIONAL BENEFITS OF THIS PROJECT INCLUDE ENGAGING NEARLY 3 MILLION MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC WHO PARTICIPATE IN CITIZEN SCIENCE THROUGH ZOONIVERSE AND GIVING THEM THE OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW MACHINE LEARNING REALLY WORKS, ENGAGING YOUNG WOMEN IN UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA COMPUTER SCIENCE CODING CAMPS, AND PROVIDING CAPSTONE PROJECTS FOR DATA SCIENCE MASTERS PROGRAM STUDENTS TO ENGAGE IN REAL-WORLD RESEARCH WHILE PREPARING THEM FOR CAREERS IN DATA SCIENCE. TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE EXCEPTIONALLY LARGE LABELED DATASETS AVAILABLE THROUGH ZOONIVERSE PROJECTS AND THE FACT THAT THE MAJORITY OF ZOONIVERSE PROJECTS ARE IMAGE-BASED, THE RESEARCH EFFORT WILL INVESTIGATE TRAINING AND DEPLOYING VISION TRANSFORMERS (VITS). SPECIFICALLY, THE IMPACT OF COMBINING HUMAN AND MACHINE ATTENTION AND ANOMALY DETECTORS ON A REAL-WORLD CITIZEN SCIENCE PLATFORM WILL BE EXPLORED WITH THE TWO OBJECTIVES: (1) CLASSIFICATION EFFICIENCY STUDIES TO OPTIMIZE THE CLASSIFICATION EFFICIENCY OF KNOWN-KNOWN CLASSES, INCLUDING SPARSELY REPRESENTED CLASSES, ACROSS MULTIPLE DOMAINS AND TASK TYPES; AND (2) SYSTEMATIZED SERENDIPITY STUDIES TO INCREASE THE EFFICIENCY OF DETECTING DIVERSE, SCIENTIFICALLY INTERESTING ANOMALIES BEYOND THE USUAL STATISTICALLY INFERRED ONES. BOTH OBJECTIVES WILL BE CARRIED OUT THROUGH EXPERIMENTS IMPLEMENTED ON CORRECT-A-MACHINE INFRASTRUCTURE WHICH WILL ENABLE MACHINE PROPOSALS AS WELL AS MACHINE ATTENTION AND ANOMALY MAPS TO BE DISPLAYED TO VOLUNTEERS. A LEVELING-UP STRATEGY FOR VOLUNTEERS INFRASTRUCTURE WILL ALSO BE DEPLOYED TO ENABLE A HUMAN-DRIVEN APPROACH TO ANOMALY DETECTION. THE RESEARCH TEAM WILL CARRY OUT EXPERIMENTS THAT INCLUDE SIMPLY TESTING IMPROVED CLASSIFICATION EFFICIENCY WITH HUMANS CORRECTING IMPLICIT MACHINE ATTENTION (I.E., ARE MODELS SUCH AS VISION TRANSFORMERS JUST SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER AT OBJECT DETECTION AND THEREFORE THE EFFICIENCY GAINS WHEN COUPLED IN A HUMAN-MACHINE SYSTEM ARE WORTH THE COMPLEXITY OF IMPLEMENTATION AND TRAINING) THROUGH TO MORE COMPLEX EXPERIMENTS THAT EXPLICITLY COMBINE MACHINE AND HUMAN ATTENTION (THAT IS, DOES ASKING VOLUNTEERS TO CORRECT AN EXPLICIT MACHINE ATTENTION MAP IMPROVE PERFORMANCE OF THE MACHINE OR FURTHER, CAN MACHINE ATTENTION AND ANOMALY MAPS AID IN HUMAN IDENTIFICATION OF ANOMALIES IN THE DATA?). THE TEST PROJECTS IMPLEMENTED THROUGH THIS WORK WILL BE IMMEDIATELY SCIENTIFICALLY USEFUL, BUT IMPORTANTLY WILL ALSO UNDERPIN THE HUMAN-MACHINE INFRASTRUCTURE REQUIRED TO ENABLE MULTIPLE RESEARCH DISCIPLINES TO MAKE BEST USE OF THE EVER-INCREASING AMOUNTS OF DATA. THIS AWARD REFLECTS NSF'S STATUTORY MISSION AND HAS BEEN DEEMED WORTHY OF SUPPORT THROUGH EVALUATION USING THE FOUNDATION'S INTELLECTUAL MERIT AND BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERIA.- SUBAWARDS ARE NOT PLANNED FOR THIS AWARD.

SCIENCE AND EDUCATION PROGRAMMING FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTSTHE ADLER IS DEVELOPING AND IMPLEMENTIN

CITIZEN CI-TEAM DEMONSTRATION PROJECT - EXPANDING THE ZOONIVERSE: REFINING RESOURCES TO SUPPORT EDUCATOR USE OF CITIZEN SCIENCE IN THE CLASSROOM

THE ADLER PLANETARIUM WILL EXPAND ACCESS TO STEM PROGRAMS FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN AND LATINX CHICAGO TEENS THROUGH A PROGRESSIVE SERIES OF ENTRY-POINT, INTRODUCTORY, INTERMEDIATE, AND ADVANCED LEVEL PROGRAMS. STUDENTS IN GRADES 7-12 WILL BE INVITED TO JOIN TEAMS OF SCIENTISTS, ENGINEERS, AND EDUCATORS TO UNDERTAKE AUTHENTIC SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND SOLVE REAL ENGINEERING CHALLENGES. IN COLLABORATION WITH SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANIZATIONS, ADLER WILL DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT NEW PARTICIPANT RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION STRATEGIES TO REACH TEENS IN SPECIFIC NEIGHBORHOODS. THE INITIATIVE WILL HELP ADDRESS THE UNDERREPRESENTATION OF LATINX AND AFRICAN AMERICANS IN ENGINEERING.

POINTING MONITOR SYSTEM FOR THE VERITAS GAMMA-RAY OBSERVATORY AND TEV STUDIES OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI

THE BROADER SCOPE: A SURVEY AND ANALYSIS OF SURVIVING REFRACTING TELESCOPES PRIOR TO 1750

THE ADLER PLANETARIUM WILL DEVELOP AND PRESENT DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT EXPERIENCES FOR 6TH TO 8TH GRADERS IN UNDER-RESOURCED NEIGHBORHOODS IN CHICAGO AND RURAL COMMUNITIES THROUGHOUT CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN ILLINOIS. THE ADLER WILL WORK WITH AN INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAM OF MUSEUM PRACTITIONERS, EDUCATORS, ASTRONOMERS, AND VISUALIZATION EXPERTS TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN STEAM LEARNING WITHIN 3-D IMMERSIVE ENVIRONMENTS, WITH HANDS-ON AND DIGITAL PRE/POST ACTIVITIES TO DEEPEN THE IMPACT. THE PROJECT WILL ESTABLISH PARTNERSHIPS WITH 40 SCHOOLTEACHERS AND 20 OUT-OF-SCHOOL PROGRAM ORGANIZATIONS. AN EVALUATION PLAN WILL INCLUDE TRACKING OF PARTICIPATION METRICS WITHIN TARGET COMMUNITIES, ATTITUDINAL SURVEYS, AND PRE AND POST ACTIVITY MEASUREMENTS.

SPECTROSCOPY OF SILICATE RICH ASTEROIDS

ADVANCING ACCESS TO TRANSCRIBED TEXT IN CITIZEN HUMANITIES

CHS: SMALL: COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: OPTIMIZING THE HUMAN-MACHINE SYSTEM FOR CITIZEN SCIENCE

CHS: SMALL: COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: OPTIMIZING THE HUMAN-MACHINE SYSTEM FOR CITIZEN SCIENCE

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: ENGAGING INTRODUCTORY ASTRONOMY STUDENTS IN AUTHENTIC RESEARCH THROUGH CITIZEN SCIENCE

THE ADLER PLANETARIUM WILL COLLABORATE WITH ILLINOIS LIBRARY SYSTEM PARTNERS TO REACH AUDIENCES THROUGHOUT THE STATE IN ADVANCE OF THE OCTOBER 2023 AND APRIL 2024 SOLAR ECLIPSES. THE PLANETARIUM WILL DEVELOP A BOOKLET AND POSTER FOR LIBRARIANS FEATURING SOLAR ECLIPSE EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES AND CONTENT. IT WILL DISTRIBUTE THESE RESOURCES, ALONG WITH A SUPPLY OF SOLAR VIEWING GLASSES, TO EVERY PUBLIC LIBRARY IN ILLINOIS, EQUIPPING THEM TO SHARE SKY OBSERVING RESOURCES WITH THEIR COMMUNITY MEMBERS. THE PLANETARIUM WILL THEN FACILITATE IN-PERSON AND ONLINE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR LIBRARIANS ON SOLAR ECLIPSE-RELATED TOPICS. THE PROJECT WILL FURTHER ADLER PLANETARIUM’S GOAL TO REDUCE BARRIERS TO SCIENCE AND SCIENCE RESOURCES, WHILE PROVIDING PARTICIPATING LIBRARIANS WITH NEW ASTRONOMY KNOWLEDGE AND IMPROVING THEIR ABILITY TO OFFER RELATED PROGRAMS AND RESPOND TO PUBLIC QUESTIONS.

CELESTIAL CARTOGRAPHY DIGITIZATION PROJECT

PAUL KNAPPENBERGER/THE ADLER PLANETARIUM EXPLORE THE GALAXY THIS REVISED PROPOSAL IS SUBMITTED IN RESPONSE TO REVIEWS AND PARTIAL, FUNDING FOR COMPE

TOUCH THE SOLAR SYSTEM:THE ADLER PLANETARIUM AND ASTRONOMY MUSEUM PROPOSES FOR FUNDING "TOUCH THE SOLAR SYSTEM", A SMALL EXHIBIT FEATURING SAMPLES O

THE DISK DETECTIVE CITIZEN SCIENCE PROJECT IS A SEARCH FOR NEW DEBRIS DISKS AND PROTOPLANETARY DISKS BASED AROUND THE WEBSITE DISKDETECTIVE.ORG. THE

SCOPING SCALABLE SUSTAINABLE DH INFRASTRUCTURE FOR ONLINE CROWDSOURCING [THIS PROJECT WILL SOLICIT FEEDBACK FROM USERS OF KEY DIGITAL HUMANITIES RESOURCES THAT MAKE UP PART OF THE ZOONIVERSE CROWDSOURCING PLATFORM, AS WELL AS SUPPORTING A CODE AUDIT, IN PREPARATION FOR PLANS TO SCALE. THESE RESOURCES?USER-FACING TOOLS FOR COLLABORATIVE TEXT TRANSCRIPTION, AND A BROWSER-BASED APPLICATION THAT SUPPORTS VIEWING AND EDITING OF TRANSCRIPTION PROJECT RESULTS?SUPPORT TEAMS USING ZOONIVERSE TO CROWDSOURCE THE TRANSCRIPTION OF HISTORIC DOCUMENTS, AND HELP ENSURE THAT THE LABOR PROVIDED BY VOLUNTEER TRANSCRIBERS LEADS TO HIGH-QUALITY, USEABLE RESULTS. WE ARE REQUESTING A LEVEL I DIGITAL HUMANITIES ADVANCEMENT GRANT TO SUPPORT AN EVALUATIVE STUDY OF CURRENT ZOONIVERSE INFRASTRUCTURE THAT SUPPORTS THE HUMANITIES. THE INFORMATION WE LEARN FROM THE PROPOSED EFFORTS WILL ALLOW US TO CREATE A DEVELOPMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY PLAN IN SERVICE OF ADAPTING EXISTING TOOLS TO SUPPORT A WIDER USER BASE, AND BUILDING NEW FEATURES BASED ON THE NEEDS OF OUR CURRENT COMMUNITY.]

CONSERVATION PROGRAM

WHAT ARE THE SUN S NEAREST NEIGHBORS? HOW ARE PLANETS RELATED TO BROWN DWARFS (BDS)? MICROLENSING SURVEYS (MOA&OGLE COLLABORATIONS 2011) STATISTICAL STUDIES OF THE STAR-TOBROWN- DWARF RATIO (BIHAIN&SCHOLZ 2016) AND RECENT DISCOVERIES OF ULTRACOOL BROWN DWARFS (KIRKPATRICK ET AL. 2014; LUHMAN 2014; LUHMAN 2013B) POINT TO AN UNDISCOVERED POPULATION OF BROWN DWARFS AND ROGUE PLANETS IN THE SOLAR NEIGHBORHOOD. FINDING NEW EXAMPLES OF SUCH OBJECTS REVEALS THE LOW-MASS END OF THE SUBSTELLAR MASS FUNCTION (ALLEN ET AL. 2005; LODIEU ET AL. 2017) INFORMING THEORIES OF STAR AND PLANET FORMATION. SPECTROSCOPY OF THESE NEARBY OBJECTS YIELDS UNIQUE NEW TESTS FOR ATMOSPHERIC MODELS (MORLEY ET AL. 2012) WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR EXOPLANETS (BEICHMAN ET AL. 2014) AND SOLAR SYSTEM PLANETS (SKEMER ET AL. 2016). NASA S WIDE-FIELD INFRARED SURVEY EXPLORER (WISE; WRIGHT ET AL. 2010) SERVES AS A POWERFUL TOOL FOR FINDING NEARBY ULTRACOOL BROWN DWARFS (KIRKPATRICK ET AL. 2011; MACE ET AL. 2013; SCHNEIDER ET AL. 2017). WISE SURVEYED THE WHOLE SKY SIMULTANEOUSLY IN FOUR BANDS WITH CENTRAL WAVELENGTHS OF 3.4 4.6 12 AND 22 M (CALLED W1 W2 W3 AND W4) BEGINNING IN JANUARY 2010 WITH THE SENSITIVITY TO DETECT A 250 K BROWN DWARF TO>6 PC AND EVEN A JUPITER ANALOG ORBITING THE SUN TO>0.6 PC. THE WHOLE WISE CATALOG CONTAINS OVER 747 MILLION SOURCES OF ALL KINDS (CUTRI ET AL. 2013). THIS MASSIVE ARCHIVE SERVES AS A CRUCIAL PRECURSOR SURVEY FOR THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE (JWST) TO BE LAUNCHED IN OCTOBER 2018. HOWEVER SEARCHES FOR OBJECTS WITH LARGE SPACE MOTIONS IN WISE DATA HAVE YET TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE FULL DEPTH AND TIME BASELINE OF THE WISE IMAGES. THE LIMITING MAGNITUDES OF THE WISE ALL-SKY CATALOG ARE APPROXIMATELY W1=16.6 AND W2=16.0. YET PROPER MOTION SURVEYS (SCHNEIDER ET AL. 2016) SO FAR HAVE GENERALLY BEEN LIMITED TO OBJECTS WITH W2 MAGNITUDE<14.5. FURTHERMORE WISE HAS CONTINUED TO SCAN THE SKY IN THE W1 AND W2 BANDS THROUGH THE NEAR EARTH OBJECT WISE-REACTIVATION (NEOWISER) PROJECT. NEOWISER IMAGING THAT HAS ALREADY BEEN RELEASED INCREASES THE TIME BASELINE AVAILABLE IN THE W1 AND W2 BANDS BY A FACTOR ~10; THIS TIME BASELINE HAS NOT BEEN FULLY EXPLOITED IN PUBLISHED BD SEARCHES. TO EFFICIENTLY SCOUR THIS UNEXPLORED DISCOVERY SPACE WE HAVE LAUNCHED A NEW CITIZEN SCIENCE WEBSITE BACKYARDWORLDS.ORG (KUCHNER ET AL. 2017). THIS WEBSITE PART OF THE ZOONIVERSE CITIZEN SCIENCE COMMUNITY TOGETHER WITH GALAXY ZOO PLANET HUNTERS AND MANY OTHER FLAGSHIP CITIZEN SCIENCE PROJECTS (SEE HTTP://WWW.ZOONIVERSE.ORG) ENGAGES LAYPERSON VOLUNTEERS TO EXAMINE IMAGES FROM WISE TO LOOK FOR HIGH-PROPER MOTION OBJECTS. THIS APPROACH WILL UNLEASH THE FULL POWER OF THE WISE ARCHIVE FOR DETECTING NEARBY BROWN DWARFS REVEALING OBJECTS PROFESSIONAL SCIENTISTS WOULD OTHERWISE LIKELY NOT SPOT FOR MANY YEARS. WE ESTIMATE THAT BACKYARDWORLDS.ORG WILL YIELD>1000 OBJECTS THAT DEMAND PUBLICATION AND THAT OUR CANDIDATES WILL ROUGHLY DOUBLE THE SAMPLE OF KNOWN BROWN DWARFS COOLER THAN SPECTRAL TYPE L5. WITH THIS PROPOSAL WE SEEK FUNDS FOR SCIENTISTS TO SUSTAIN AND IMPROVE THE PRELIMINARY BACKYARDWORLDS.ORG CITIZEN SCIENCE WEBSITE ANALYZE THE RESULTS AND DELIVER THEM TO THE COMMUNITY AND EXPLOIT THE OUTPUT FOR SCIENCE. BACKYARDWORLDS.ORG LAUNCHED ON FEBRUARY 15 2017 HAS ALREADY RECEIVED OVER 3.6 MILLION CLASSIFICATIONS FROM ~104 000 VOLUNTEERS WORLDWIDE AND ALREADY DISCOVERED 13 BD CANDIDATES. OUR EFFORTS WILL LEVERAGE THE HARD WORK OF THESE CITIZEN SCIENTISTS AT MINIMAL COST TO NASA WHILE CEMENTING THE WORLDWIDE LEGACY OF THE WISE ARCHIVE JUST IN TIME FOR FOLLOW-UP OF THE NEARBY ULTRACOOL OBJECTS WE FIND WITH JWST WHOSE MID-INFRARED SENSITIVITY WILL BE REQUIRED FOR HIGH SIGNAL-TO-NOISE SPECTRA OF THE COLDEST BDS.

MATURE PLANETARY SYSTEMS ARE OFTEN MOST EASILY RECOGNIZED BY THE INFRARED EMISSION FROM THEIR DEBRIS DISKS. THESE DISKS OF ROCK, ICE AND DUST ARE ANA

PLANNING STORAGE IMPROVEMENTS FOR THE HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS

DIGITAL HISTORIC SKIES

TO SUPPORT THE PRE-PRODUCTION COSTS OF SUNDIALS PART 1, THE FIRST OF A TWO VOLUME CATALOGUE DOCUMENTING THE MUSEUM'S SUNDIAL COLLECTION.

ZOONIVERSE U.S.-UK PLANNING MEETING: BRINGING TOGETHER SCIENCE AND EDUCATION TEAMS