Exploring the Sun Through Citizen Science: Eclipse Soundscapes, Aurorasaurus, and Sungrazer

Overview

In this episode, NASA's Curious Universe hosts Jacob Pinner and producer Christian Elliott explore how the Sun influences Earth and how everyday people can participate in heliophysics research. The focus centers on three citizen science projects tied to the 2024 Sun events: Eclipse Soundscapes, Aurorasaurus, and Sungrazer, illustrating a multi‑sensory and data‑driven approach to understanding our star and its space weather.

Key insights

• Citizen science expands data collection for heliophysics, turningObservations from the public into research signals.
• Eclipse Soundscapes tracks animal responses during solar eclipses using audio moths and tactile feedback, building on a century‑old question about wildlife behavior during eclipses.
• Aurorasaurus connects ground observers with satellite data to study aurora dynamics and even rediscovered historical phenomena like Steve, a rare high altitude event.
• Sungrazer leverages the SOHO solar observatory to discover thousands of sun grazing comets, revealing how small bodies illuminate Sun‑Earth interactions.

Introduction

This episode of NASA's Curious Universe continues a five‑part dive into the Sun, framing the discussion around how citizen scientists contribute to heliophysics and why sunlight, solar wind, and space weather matter to life on Earth.

The Helio Big Year and Citizen Science

The hosts explain the Helio Physics Big Year concept, borrowed from birding traditions where enthusiasts try to observe as many solar phenomena as possible. Liz McDonald, a NASA sun scientist who leads citizen science for heliophysics, provides the framework: volunteers help scientists manage data deluges and cover global observation gaps, bringing hobbies like stargazing and thermodynamics into actionable science. This section underscores the symbiotic relationship between scientists and citizen scientists, where ordinary people contribute meaningful discoveries as part of a larger research ecosystem.

Stop 1: Eclipse Soundscapes

The Eclipse Soundscapes project emerges from co‑lead Dr. Henry Winter, known as Trey, who developed an accessibility‑oriented eclipse guide for the blind and low‑vision community. The project expanded into a citizen science study of animal behavior during total solar eclipses. A key historical anchor is a 1932 Boston eclipse study led by William Morton Wheeler, which collected observations about both behavior and sounds from wildlife. Modern tools include audio moth recorders and multilingual, multi‑sensor approaches to capture the eclipse’s ecological impact. Volunteers, including Texas Master Naturalists, deploy audio moths in diverse habitats to document shifts in animal soundscapes as totality passes, creating a rich, multi‑sensory data set for researchers to analyze after the event.

The narrative emphasizes the eclipse as a multisensory event rather than a purely visual one, detailing how temperature changes and soundscapes transform in minutes during totality. The podcast highlights the experiential aspect of eclipses and how citizen scientists help quantify it, extending the reach of solar research beyond traditional observatories.

Stop 2: Aurorasaurus and Steve

The episode then shifts to Aurorasaurus, Liz McDonald’s ongoing citizen science platform that mobilizes ground observers and satellites to study auroras. The hosts describe the aurora as a dynamic, high energy process triggered by solar wind interacting with Earth’s magnetic field. A fascinating case study is Hannibala Nell, an aurora guide who uses the community to collect ground observations and images while tracing solar wind patterns across the Sun’s 28‑day rotation. The project exemplifies how citizen scientists help scientists locate unusual auroral features, such as a pink, contrail‑like arc nicknamed Steve. By matching ground photographs with satellite data, researchers identified Steve as a rare atmospheric phenomenon linked to high altitude particle dynamics. The episode emphasizes Steve’s historical echoes, including a century‑old Norwegian data set that hints at similar phenomena, and demonstrates how citizen scientists can resurrect overlooked lines of inquiry.

Stop 3: Sungrazer and the Sun’s Comets

The Sungrazer project centers on SOHO, a long‑running space mission designed to study the Sun but famous for discovering sun grazing comets. Carl Battams, leader of Sungrazer, explains how SOHO’s coronagraph reveals faint comets skimming the Sun’s inner atmosphere. Since the mid‑1990s, the project has documented thousands of comets, with a Kreutz group dominance describing a family of comets that break apart when they approach the Sun. The chorus of voices includes Han Ji Tan, a middle schooler who discovered comets in the archives and has now logged thousands of hours in the SOHO imagery. In the broader sense, Sungrazer highlights how citizen scientists, aided by AI, help discover and track comets, providing critical data about the Sun’s immediate environment and the dynamic interaction between solar activity and small bodies.

The segment makes a poetic point: dysons of data from a solar‑viewing spacecraft can be complemented by persistent, patient human scanning, enabling scientific breakthroughs that might otherwise be missed. The host notes that these discoveries illuminate how the Sun shapes our planetary system and how small visitors to the Sun can reveal large-scale solar processes.

Reflections and Participation

The podcast closes with a reflection on the mutual benefit of citizen science; scientists gain access to broad data coverage, while volunteers experience the wonder of scientific discovery. Listeners are encouraged to participate through eclipse listening and observation, wear eclipse glasses safely, and consider joining Sungrazer and Aurorasaurus to contribute to ongoing research.

Conclusion

The episode argues that curiosity and attentiveness to the Sun can transform daily life, turning passionate observers into valuable contributors to our understanding of space weather, solar physics, and the Sun’s influence on Earth.