Citizen scientists are increasingly contributing to frontline astronomical research. The Unistellar telescope network, developed in partnership with the SETI Institute, demonstrates how distributed observing systems can expand the scale of scientific discovery.
In a recent SETI Live conversation, SETI Institute Citizen Science Director Dr. Franck Marchis and SETI Institute researcher Dr. Lauren Sgro highlighted the network’s rapid growth. In 2025 alone, observers contributed more than 15,000 astronomical observations, representing a roughly 50% increase over 2024.
The participants in the network observed a wide range of astronomical targets, including:
Exoplanet transits: small dips in starlight caused when a planet crosses in front of its host star
Asteroid occultations: brief events where an asteroid passes in front of a background star
Comet activity: monitoring brightness changes and sudden outbursts
Artificial satellites and rocket bodies: tracking objects in Earth orbit
Transient events: explosive phenomena such as novae and supernovae
Because observers are distributed across the globe, the network can monitor objects continuously as Earth rotates. This global coverage allows astronomers to capture events that might otherwise be missed.
Tracking Down a TESS Exoplanet Candidate
One of the network’s most significant recent achievements involved observing a possible orbital period for a candidate planet discovered by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).
TESS detects planets using transit photometry, the measurement of tiny decreases in starlight when a planet passes in front of its host star. However, when only two transits are observed far apart in time, astronomers cannot determine the planet’s exact orbital period.
The candidate planet TOI-5571.01 presented this exact challenge, with two TESS-observed transits separated by nearly two years, leaving astronomers with 23 possible orbital periods.
Citizen astronomers in the Unistellar network monitored each possible transit window. As a result, the discovery further unfolded in several stages. Unistellar observer Jericho Kuehl detected a transit during one of the predicted windows, resulting in a dramatic reduction of the possible orbits. A later detection by observers in Japan confirmed Kuehl’s observation, resulting in a potential orbital period of 36.5 days.
The planet is likely a warm Jupiter, a gas giant orbiting farther from its star than the intensely irradiated hot Jupiters commonly found in exoplanet surveys.
The observations gathered by the Unistellar network may be sufficient to formally confirm the planet in a scientific publication.
A Planet That Is Disintegrating
Citizen astronomers also observed the unusual exoplanet BD+05 4868 AB, a rocky planet orbiting so close to its star that it is actively breaking apart.
As the planet loses material, it forms a comet-like tail of debris trailing behind it. During transits, both the planet and the extended tail pass in front of the star, producing distinctive light-curve signatures.
In 2025, observers in the Unistellar network captured four transits of this planet over 25 hours of continuous observation, the longest continuous dataset obtained by the network.
Such measurements will help astronomers analyze the chemical composition of the escaping material and probe the planet’s interior structure.
Watching Comets and Interstellar Visitors
The Unistellar network also monitored several unexpected cometary events during 2025.
One example involved C/2024 S1 ATLAS, informally nicknamed the “Headless Comet.” During its evolution, the comet appeared to lose its central condensation, the bright nucleus typically visible in comet observations, giving it an unusually diffuse appearance. Citizen astronomers in the Unistellar network contributed observations that documented the comet’s changing structure and brightness.
The network also conducted extensive observations of 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar object passing through the Solar System. Nearly 500 observations were collected across the network, providing almost continuous monitoring of the object’s activity. These observations suggest the object behaves similarly to an exocomet, a comet originating from outside the Solar System. The dataset is currently being analyzed, and a scientific paper describing the results is in preparation.
The Unistellar network additionally captured unusual activity from Comet 29P/Schwassmann–Wachmann, a distant comet orbiting between Jupiter and Saturn. During one recent event, the comet brightened from magnitude 15 to magnitude 12, roughly sixteen times brighter than its normal state.
Astronomers believe such brightening events occur when volatile materials beneath the comet’s surface heat up, causing trapped gases to rapidly vaporize and gas and dust to erupt outward in an explosive release. Continuous monitoring by the Unistellar network enabled researchers to track the onset and evolution of the outburst, providing clues about the comet’s internal composition.
Monitoring the Dynamic Sky
Citizen astronomers routinely monitor transient astronomical events, including the recurrent nova T Coronae Borealis, a star expected to erupt dramatically when material accumulates on its surface, triggering a thermonuclear explosion. In 2025 alone, observers in the network collected more than 1,500 observations of the system in anticipation of this event.
The network also tracks rocket bodies and satellites left in Earth orbit after spacecraft launches. These objects can be several meters across and occasionally release residual propellant or fragments.
Monitoring their motion improves orbital predictions and helps astronomers mitigate interference with telescope observations.
Artificial Intelligence and the Next Generation of Observations
AI is becoming essential for managing the growing volume of astronomical data.
Within the Unistellar network, AI algorithms are already used to automatically detect asteroid occultations by scanning for brightness changes in stellar light curves. These systems currently identify events with about 90 percent accuracy, with improvements underway.
Automation will become even more important as new observatories, such as the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, begin producing enormous streams of alerts, potentially hundreds of thousands per night.
To manage this scale, researchers are developing the SkyMapper network, an AI-enabled system designed to coordinate observations across hundreds of telescopes worldwide. By the end of 2026, the SkyMapper team hopes to create a network of approximately 1,000 telescopes capable of monitoring any region of the sky in near real time.
Preparing for Artemis II
On top of all last year’s observations, the Unistellar network is preparing to support NASA’s Artemis II mission with a campaign to detect lunar impact flashes, brief bursts of light produced when meteoroids strike the Moon.
Because the Moon lacks a dense atmosphere, incoming objects impact the surface directly, creating observable flashes. Monitoring these impacts helps researchers estimate meteoroid populations in near-Earth space.
Expanding the Frontier of Discovery
The success of the Unistellar network demonstrates how citizen science can expand the reach of astronomical research.
With thousands of observers distributed across the globe, the network can monitor dynamic phenomena continuously and respond quickly to new discoveries.
As telescope networks grow and automated systems become more powerful, collaborations between professional scientists and citizen astronomers will continue to transform how the sky is explored.
Watch the full SETI Live conversation here.
Learn more about SETI Institute citizen science programs at science.unistellar.com.