Planet Hunters

First, gamers solved a complex protein-folding puzzle that had stumped scientists for nearly a decade. Now they’re discovering new planets.

A game called Planet Hunters turns images from NASA’s Kepler space telescope into a crowdsourced search for potentially-habitable planets. With 40,000 registered gamers reporting in every time they see a potential planet pass in front of one the 200,000+ stars recorded by Kepler, 69 possible planets have already been discovered.

Two of those planets have already been confirmed by NASA, and the players who discovered them received credit alongside researchers in a Royal Astronomical Society journal article (pdf).

Planet Hunters is still open, if you want to try your hand at discovering a planet of your own.