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The newest generation of radio telescopes are able to survey large areas withhigh sensitivity and cadence, producing data volumes that require new methodsto better understand the transient sky. Here we describe the results from thefirst citizen science project dedicated to commensal radio transients, usingdata from the MeerKAT telescope with weekly cadence. Bursts from Space: MeerKATwas launched late in 2021 and received ~89000 classifications from over 1000volunteers in 3 months. Our volunteers discovered 142 new variable sourceswhich, along with the known transients in our fields, allowed us to estimatethat at least 2.1 per cent of radio sources are varying at 1.28 GHz at thesampled cadence and sensitivity, in line with previous work. We provide thefull catalogue of these sources, the largest of candidate radio variables todate. Transient sources found with archival counterparts include a pulsar(B1845-01) and an OH maser star (OH 30.1-0.7), in addition to the recovery ofknown stellar flares and X-ray binary jets in our observations. Data from theMeerLICHT optical telescope, along with estimates of long time-scalevariability induced by scintillation, imply that the majority of the newvariables are active galactic nuclei. This tells us that citizen scientists candiscover phenomena varying on time-scales from weeks to several years. Thesuccess both in terms of volunteer engagement and scientific merit warrants thecontinued development of the project, whilst we use the classifications fromvolunteers to develop machine learning techniques for finding transients.

Bursts from Space: MeerKAT - The first citizen science project dedicated to commensal radio transients