Stardust@Home

With the return of NASA's Stardust mission, scientists will slowly begin to analyze the data captured by the spacecraft's aerogel collectors. Though preliminary analysis has already revealed that the collectors brought home millions of cometary particles, finding the interstellar dust grains collected on the opposite side of the collector trays is going to prove a more challenging task. Scientists have estimated that up to 200, but potentially only as many as 50, interstellar dust grains were collected in the gel. Finding the dust grains is going to be difficult, as around 1.6 million different fields of view will have to be scanned for traces of these grains. Therefore, in a project entitled Stardust@Home, volunteers from the general public are signing up to help find these dust grains. The webpage states,

"The only way that we can think of to find these exciting interstellar dust grains is to recruit talented volunteers to help us search. First, you will go through a web-based training session. This is not for everyone: you must pass a test to qualify to register to participate. After passing the test and registering, you will be able to download a virtual microscope (VM). The VM will automatically connect to our server and download so-called "focus movies" -- stacks of images that we will collect from the Stardust Interstellar Dust Collector using an automated microscope at the Cosmic Dust Lab at Johnson Space Center. The VM will work on your computer, under your control. You will search each field for interstellar dust impacts by focusing up and down with a focus control. The more focus movies you examine, the better the chances are that you'll find an interstellar dust grain. But we have no minimum expectation -- you should search through focus movies as long as you're having fun doing it. Just remember that you are looking at the first collector that has gone into deep space and come back. This is a very special opportunity!"

If interested, read more here and register here.