Planet Hunters

http://www.planethunters.org/

Part of the Zooniverse science project created by the Citizen Science Alliance in collaboration with Yale University, Planet Hunters lets you participate in the real, hard work, of scientific research. Typically, you are presented with the light curves of stars. While computers can identify clear changes in a stars brightness, the human eye can detect changes that may fall into the category of 'noise' that comes with the data. That data comes from the Kepler Mission, NASA Discovery mission #10, to survey the Milky Way galaxy for stars that might have planets in or near the habitable zone. The current Kepler Planet count is 77. The Planet Hunters are contributing to that number. A short tutorial provides instruction on what to look for and gives you some practice. Then you jump right in and search. You can log in and get credit for your discoveries. There is a team of professionals that monitors the most likely candidates. You can follow Planet Hunters on Facebook and Twitter. Zooniverse also has a program to help study the Lunar surface - MoonZoo, and another to classify Galaxies - Galaxy Zoo.