Discovery of Jupiter Family Comet 2011 UG104 Through AI Enhanced Citizen Science
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Abstract We report the discovery of cometary activity from minor planet 2011 UG104, which we classify as a Jupiter Family Comet (JFC). This discovery was aided by our Artificial Intelligence (AI) classification system: TailNet. JFC's, short-period comets with eccentric Jupiter-crossing orbits, originate from the Kuiper Belt and thus give us unique insight into the composition and distribution of volatiles in the outer solar system, past and present. Our AI assistant TailNet first classified 2011 UG104 as active, which was affirmed by Citizen Scientists on our NASA Partner Program Active Asteroids. Through further archival image searches our science team found evidence of activity on 2011 UG104 on three separate observations from 2021 February to 2021 April (81.°8 < f < 95.°0).
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The most common way of integrating AI in citizen science is by having participants train algorithms.
“Among citizen science projects, the most common way of integrating AI is by having participants train algorithms (Chandler et al., 2025;DeSpain et al., 2024;Duerinckx et al., 2024, p. 3;Jia et al., 2025;See et al., 2025).”
From Deepfakes, Democracy, and the Ethics of Synthetic Media: A Synthesis of the SOLARIS Project (2026) · cites this paper as DeSpain et al., 2024
The Methods section describes volunteers classifying images and TailNet assisting the screening process. It does not say that participants train TailNet or other algorithms, or compare how commonly AI is integrated across citizen science projects. Searches for algorithm training and the claimed ‘most common’ approach found no supporting passage. (LLM, conf=0.78)
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Cites
EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts
Bell, A., Main, I. G., Atkinson, M., Vicente, R. F., Meredith, P. G., & Boon, S. A. (2013) · Cited by 2,408 · see citing works
ASTROMETRY.NET: BLIND ASTROMETRIC CALIBRATION OF ARBITRARY ASTRONOMICAL IMAGES
Lang, D., Hogg, D. W., Mierle, K., Blanton, M. R., & Roweis, S. T. (2010) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.1088/0004-6256/139/5/1782 · Cited by 1,065 · see citing works
The Active Asteroids Citizen Science Program: Overview and First Results
Chandler, C. O., Trujillo, C. A., Oldroyd, W. J., Kueny, J. K., Burris, W. A., Hsieh, H. H., DeSpain, J. A., Sedaghat, N., Sheppard, S. S., Farrell, K. A., et al. (2024) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ad1de2 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Self-citation2016 UU121: An Active Asteroid Discovery via AI-enhanced Citizen Science
Sedaghat, N., Chandler, C. O., Oldroyd, W. J., Trujillo, C. A., Burris, W. A., Hsieh, H. H., Kueny, J. K., Farrell, K. A., DeSpain, J. A., Magbanua, M. J. M., et al. (2024) · Research Notes of the AAS · doi:10.3847/2515-5172/ad2b66 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Self-citationAI-enhanced Citizen Science Discovery of an Active Asteroid: (410590) 2008 GB140
Chandler, C. O., Sedaghat, N., Oldroyd, W. J., Trujillo, C. A., Burris, W. A., Hsieh, H. H., Kueny, J. K., Farrell, K. A., DeSpain, J. A., Magbanua, M. J. M., et al. (2024) · Research Notes of the AAS · doi:10.3847/2515-5172/ad2b67 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
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AI-enhanced Citizen Science Discovers Cometary Activity on Near-Earth Object (523822) 2012 DG61
Chandler, C. O., Sedaghat, N., Oldroyd, W. J., Frissell, M. K., Trujillo, C. A., Burris, W. A., Hsieh, H. H., Kueny, J. K., Farrell, K. A., Borisov, G. V., et al. (2025) · Research Notes of the AAS · doi:10.3847/2515-5172/ada368 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Self-citationCometary Activity from Minor Planet 2015 VP51 Discovered with Citizen Science
Frissell, M., Chandler, C. O., Oldroyd, W. J., Trujillo, C. A., Sedaghat, N., Burris, W. A., Kueny, J. K., DeSpain, J. A., Farrell, K. A., Hsieh, H. H., et al. (2024) · Research Notes of the AAS · doi:10.3847/2515-5172/ad7854 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Self-citationDeepfakes, Democracy, and the Ethics of Synthetic Media: A Synthesis of the SOLARIS Project
(2026) · University of Maribor Press · doi:10.18690/um.feri.2.2026
Synthetic Media for Social Good: Unlocking Positive Potential
Tumminelli, A., Conover, L., Caltagirone, C., Bassano, G., Rakipi, G., & Tonello, T. (2026) · doi:10.18690/um.feri.2.2026.6
Morato, N., Chandler, C. O., Sedaghat, N., Oldroyd, W. J., Murtagh, J., Vavilov, D., Wainscoat, R. J., Meech, K. J., Micheli, M., Weryk, R. J., et al. (2026) · Research Notes of the AAS · doi:10.3847/2515-5172/ae8c40
Self-citation
- Authors
- DeSpain, J. A., Chandler, C. O., Sedaghat, N., Oldroyd, W. J., Trujillo, C. A., Burris, W. A., Hsieh, H. H., Kueny, J. K., Farrell, K. A., Magbanua, M. J. M., Sheppard, S. S., Mazzucato, M. T., Bosch, M. K. D., Shaw-Diaz, T., Gonano, V., Lamperti, A., da Silva Campos, J. A., Goodwin, B. L., Terentev, I. A., & Dukes, C. J. A.
- Affiliations
- Northern Arizona University (US)
- University of Washington (US)
- Planetary Science Institute (US)
- U.S. National Science Foundation (US)
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- Carnegie Institution for Science (US)
- Royal Astronomical Society (GB)
- ORCID
- DeSpain, Jarod A.
- Chandler, Colin Orion
- Sedaghat, Nima
- Oldroyd, William J.
- Trujillo, Chadwick A.
- Burris, William A.
- Hsieh, Henry H.
- Kueny, Jay K.
- Farrell, Kennedy A.
- Magbanua, Mark Jesus Mendoza
- Sheppard, Scott S.
- Mazzucato, Michele T.
- Bosch, Milton K. D.
- Shaw-Diaz, Tiffany
- Lamperti, Al
- Terentev, Ivan A.
- Dukes, Charles J. A.
- Venue
- Research Notes of the AAS
- Publisher
- American Astronomical Society
- Published
- 2024-05-22
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 140
- ISSN
- 2515-5172 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4398201386
- Cited by
- 4
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1
- FWCI
- 0.75
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Research Notes of the AAS (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NSSC19K0869, 80NSSC21K0114)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astro and Planetary Science
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Aerospace Engineering › Space Satellite Systems and Control
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
- Keywords
- Jupiter-family comets, cometary activity, minor planet, artificial intelligence classification, citizen science, active asteroids, Kuiper belt, short-period comets
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