Asteroid Zoo

{{Infobox website

| name = Asteroid Zoo

| logo = Avatar asteroids.jpg

| logo_size = 200px

| url = [http://www.asteroidzoo.org/ asteroidzoo.org]

| commercial = No

| type = Citizen science project

| language = English, Polish

| registration = Yes, but not mandatory

| author = Planetary Resources; C. Lewicki, M. Beasley, et al.{{cite web|title=Asteroid Zoo: About|url=http://www.asteroidzoo.org/#/about|website=Asteroid Zoo|accessdate=6 February 2015}}

| launch_date = 24 June 2014{{cite web|title=Welcome to Asteroid Zoo!|url=http://blog.asteroidzoo.org/2014/06/24/welcome-to-asteroid-zoo/|website=blog.asteroidzoo.org|publisher=asteroid zoo|accessdate=6 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140912201340/http://blog.asteroidzoo.org/2014/06/24/welcome-to-asteroid-zoo/|archive-date=12 September 2014|url-status=dead}}

| current_status = Paused

}}

Asteroid Zoo was a citizen science project run by the Zooniverse and Planetary Resources, to use volunteer classifications to find unknown asteroids using old Catalina Sky Survey data.{{cite web|last1=Wall|first1=Mike|title=Asteroid Zoo Asks Public to Find Dangerous Space Rocks|url=http://www.space.com/26349-asteroid-zoo-zooniverse-planetary-resources.html|website=Space.com|date=24 June 2014|publisher=Purch|accessdate=6 February 2015}}{{Cite web |date=2014-06-25 |title='Asteroid Zoo' Enlists Citizen Scientists for Online Hunt |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/asteroid-zoo-enlists-citizen-scientists-online-hunt-n140151 |access-date=2025-03-05 |website=NBC News |language=en}} The main goals of the project were to search for undiscovered asteroids in order to protect the planet by locating potentially harmful near-Earth asteroids, locate targets for future asteroid mining, study the Solar System, and study the potential uses and advantages of crowdsourcing of astronomical data analysis.{{cite web|title=item from NASA NEWS|url=http://talk.asteroidzoo.org/#/boards/BAZ0000001/discussions/DAZ00007td|website=talk.asteroidzoo.org|accessdate=6 February 2015}}{{Cite web|url = http://www.asteroidzoo.org/#/about|title = Asteroid Zoo: About|date = |accessdate = |website = |publisher = |last = |first = }} The project was created along with the ARKYD project through Kickstarter in 2014 and was funded with around 1.5 million dollars raised.{{Cite web |date=2013-07-01 |title=Planetary Resources raises $1.5 million, commits to asteroid hunt |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/sciencemain/planetary-resources-raises-1-5-million-commits-asteroid-hunt-6c10489610 |access-date=2025-03-05 |website=NBC News |language=en}}

In 2016, the Asteroid Zoo community exhausted the publicly available data, and the experiment was indefinitely paused.[https://www.asteroidzoo.org/ Archived Zooniverse Project: Asteroid Zoo]{{Cite web |last=Zooniverse |first=The |date=2016-05-19 |title=Asteroid Zoo Paused |url=https://blog.zooniverse.org/2016/05/19/asteroid-zoo-paused/ |access-date=2023-11-17 |website=Zooniverse |language=en}} Asteroid Zoo produced several scientific publications during its run.[https://www.zooniverse.org/about/publications All publications] (2017)