The NAU Review — Using mobile apps for global conservation, how volunteer scientists are helping us learn about the universe and what one degree of warming could mean for Earth’s ecosystems

March 26, 2024

Countries throughout the world have committed to conserving 30% of the Earth’s land and sea by 2030, but questions remain about how such conservation efforts will be implemented and monitored without causing harm to Indigenous peoples and local communities. In a recent publication, researchers at NAU proposed a win-win solution: offer direct payments to those in target areas in the Global South in exchange for their help monitoring and validating conservation data via mobile apps. This mechanism could improve both the quality of the data collected and the economic conditions of local communities.

Launched through a NASA Partner program, NAU’s Active Asteroids program relies on citizen scientists to search publicly available telescope images for active asteroids—those with comet-like tails that could be caused by water or ice evaporating. These asteroids are important because they have the potential to give us better insight into the fundamentals of our solar system, such as how it formed and evolved or how there came to be so much water on Earth. Their comet-like tails may also someday provide valuable resources for space exploration.