AI-enhanced Citizen Science Discovers Cometary Activity on Near-Earth Object (523822) 2012 DG61
Open accessAbstract
Abstract We report the discovery of cometary activity in the form of a pronounced tail emanating from Near-Earth Object (523822) 2012 DG61, identified in UT 2024 April 18 Dark Energy Camera images by our AI assistant TailNet. TailNet is an AI designed to filter out images unlikely to show activity for volunteers of our NASA Partner “Active Asteroids” Citizen Science campaign, from which our AI is trained. Subsequently, our archival investigation revealed 2012 DG61 is recurrently active after we found it displaying a pronounced tail in a UT 2018 April 16 Steward Observatory Bart Bok 2.3 m telescope image and UT 2018 May 14 observations by G. Borisov with the 0.3 m telescope at MARGO Observatory. Our dynamical integrations reveal that 2012 DG61, an Apollo dynamical class member, is likely in 2:1 mean-motion resonance with Jupiter. We encourage additional observations to help characterize the activity morphology of this near-Earth comet.
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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 Chandler et al., 2025
The Methods section (page unavailable) describes volunteers classifying images and the development of the TailNet AI assistant; the paper also states that the AI is trained from the citizen-science campaign. This supports an example of participant contributions used to train AI, but the paper does not say this is the most common way AI is integrated into citizen science projects. (LLM, conf=0.87)
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Cites
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Self-citationAI-enhanced Citizen Science Discovery of an Active Asteroid: (410590) 2008 GB140
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Deepfakes, 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
- 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., DeSpain, J. A., Bernardinelli, P. H., Kurlander, J., 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
- University of Washington (US)
- Northern Arizona University (US)
- Planetary Science Institute (US)
- U.S. National Science Foundation (US)
- Lomonosov Moscow State University (RU)
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- Carnegie Institution for Science (US)
- Royal Astronomical Society (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Chandler, Colin Orion
- Sedaghat, Nima
- Oldroyd, William J.
- Frissell, Maxwell K.
- Trujillo, Chadwick A.
- Burris, William A.
- Hsieh, Henry H.
- Kueny, Jay K.
- Farrell, Kennedy A.
- Borisov, Gennady V.
- DeSpain, Jarod A.
- Bernardinelli, Pedro H.
- Kurlander, Jacob
- Magbanua, Mark Jesus Mendoza
- Sheppard, Scott S.
- Mazzucato, Michele T.
- Bosch, Milton K. D.
- Shaw-Diaz, Tiffany
- Gonano, Virgilio
- Lamperti, Al
- Goodwin, Brian L.
- Terentev, Ivan A.
- Dukes, Charles J. A.
- ORCID
- Chandler, Colin Orion
- Sedaghat, Nima
- Oldroyd, William J.
- Frissell, Maxwell K.
- Trujillo, Chadwick A.
- Burris, William A.
- Hsieh, Henry H.
- Kueny, Jay K.
- Farrell, Kennedy A.
- DeSpain, Jarod A.
- Bernardinelli, Pedro H.
- Kurlander, Jacob
- 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
- 2025-01-03
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 3
- ISSN
- 2515-5172 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4406098859
- Cited by
- 2
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2
- FWCI
- 0.89
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Research Notes of the AAS (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- 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
- near-Earth objects, cometary activity, citizen science, Dark Energy Camera
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