⭐ Kilonova Seekers currently on a 2 month maintenance break - thanks for all your efforts during the LVK O4 observing run. We will return on 2nd February 2026! [read more].
Find cosmic explosions in real-time with the Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO)
Learn moreHelp us discover new transients from GOTO using the multi-class workflow 💥, or practice your skills and sift through some of the most dramatic examples in zen mode! ✨
Zooniverse Talk
Chat with the research team and other volunteers!
Kilonova Seekers Statistics
View more statsKeep track of the progress you and your fellow volunteers have made on this project.
Every click counts! Join Kilonova Seekers's community to complete this project and help researchers produce important results. Click "View more stats" to see even more stats.
By the numbers
Message from the researcher
This is true real-time astrophysics: with every close of the shutter, new discoveries will stream in. You could discover the next kilonova, or perhaps more excitingly new transients we haven't seen before!
Tom KillesteinAbout Kilonova Seekers
GOTO is a purpose-built optical sky survey designed to rapidly follow up the afterglows of 'compact binary mergers', known as kilonovae - cosmic explosions triggered by neutron stars and black holes smashing together in distant galaxies. There are two GOTO sites, GOTO-North in the northern hemisphere on La Palma and GOTO-South in the southern hemisphere in Australia, each with 16 telescopes covering over 80 square degrees of the sky, providing all-sky coverage every 2 nights.
Citizen science is important for our work as GOTO generates significant volumes of data, taxing even machine-learning based methods. Humans are excellent at dealing with uncertainty (admitting when they don't know) and identifying 'anomalies' (novel examples that have never been seen) - often this is where the most exciting objects are hiding!
This unique citizen science project allows you to assist in the identification of transient events from GOTO in near real-time, updating with new data from the telescopes in an hourly stream.
Background image (c) Krzysztof Ulaczyk 2018.