MASSIVE AFFAIRS

Space fans around the world can help analyze data collected by the Mars Climate Sounder. Source: Wired AT THE END OF 2020, planetary scientist Marek Slipski found himself glued to his computer, poring over image after image of the Martian atmosphere: zooming in, adjusting the contrast, increasing the brightness, and experimenting with color. Slipski was looking for clouds as a postdoctoral researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). He'd written an algorithm for the task, but it was producing inconclusive results, so he'd resorted to eyeballing the data instead. This, however, quickly became overwhelming. Even in the small sample of data Slipski was looking at, there were numerous distinct cloud populations, each with its own height and brightness. "After a week, I was like, 'Okay, this is going to take a little longer,'" he recalls. "It would also be nice to have some assistance." Fortunately, NASA had just issued a call for its Citize