Five people hold awards

Employee Excellence Awards honor nearly 250 employees

A&S staff member Lynda Sovocool, interim associate director/department manager for Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, received the Mission-Possible Award, for supporting the university’s core mission to learning, discovery and engagement.

Illustration showing a mountain, clouds and nearby rocks spewing vapor

Scientists compile library for evaluating exoplanet water

Cornell scientists are developing a library of basalt-based spectral signatures that not only will help reveal the composition of planets outside of our solar system, but also could demonstrate evidence of water on those exoplanets.

Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger Receives Polar Star Award

"The Austrian Space Forum (OeWF) has awarded Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger the Polar Star Award – the Austrian Space Prize. Gernot Grömer, Director of the Austrian Space Forum awards presented Dr Kaltenegger with the award at a ceremony on Monday 23 September."

Britney Schmidt

Scientist Britney Schmidt wins Blavatnik Award

Schmidt received the award for “advancing climate science and planetary habitability studies through groundbreaking research on ice-ocean interactions and innovative exploration of Earth’s polar regions and icy planetary bodies.”

A ring of colors -- red, orange, blues yellow -- around a black interior.

Surprising ring sheds light on galaxy formation

An international research team discovered that the gas in a Hyper Luminous Infrared Galaxy was rotating in an organized fashion, rather than in the chaotic way expected after a galactic collision –– a surprising result.

Ice sheets at Mars' south poleThis image taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows ice sheets at Mars’ south pole.
This image taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows ice sheets at Mars’ south pole. NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/JHU

Simulations dampen excitement about liquid water on Mars

Cornell researchers have provided a simple and comprehensive – if less dramatic – explanation for bright radar reflections initially interpreted as liquid water beneath the ice cap on Mars’ south pole.

Jonathan Lunine, with glasses, beard and mustache, and suit and tie

Astronomer Lunine appointed chief scientist of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

As chief scientist, Lunine will guide the laboratory’s scientific research and development efforts, drive innovation across JPL’s missions and programs and enhance collaborations with NASA Headquarters, NASA centers, the California Institute of Technology, academia, the science community, government agencies and industry partners.

Peter Loewen

Peter Loewen named dean of Arts and Sciences

Coming from the University of Toronto, where he was the director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, Loewen began his five-year appointment as the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Aug. 1.

Dong Lai

Lai receives Brouwer Career Award in astronomy

The award recognizes Dong Lai’s “formidable and broad contributions to astrophysical dynamics, his outstanding mentoring record, and his wide-ranging professional service activities.”

Person in lab coat holding a glass bottle

In search for alien life, purple may be the new green

Purple bacteria is one of the primary contenders for life that could dominate a variety of Earth-like planets orbiting different stars, and would produce a distinctive "light fingerprint," Cornell scientists report.

Keefe Mitman

Hubble Fellow chooses Cornell for postdoc

Physicist Keefe Mitman will work with Nils Deppe, assistant professor of physics, on the Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) Collaboration on improving gravitational wave models to aid with the LIGO-Virgo-Kagra Collaboration’s detection and characterization of compact binary encounters.

Lisa Kaltenegger, founding director of the Carl Sagan Institute
Lisa Kaltenegger, founding director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University. “I think a lot of people might not be so aware of where we are right now, and that they are living in this momentous time in history,” she said. “We can all be a part of it.” Heather Ainsworth for The New York Times

She Dreams of Pink Planets and Alien Dinosaurs

"Have dinosaurs evolved on other worlds? Could we spot a planet of glowing organisms? What nearby star systems are positioned to observe Earth passing in front of the sun?

These are just a few of the questions that Lisa Kaltenegger has joyfully tackled. As the founding director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University, she has pioneered interdisciplinary work on the origins of life on Earth and the hunt for signs of life, or biosignatures, elsewhere in the universe."

Ligia Coelho, with wire glasses and t-shirt, smiling at the camera next to her lab bench with dials and beakers and wires connecting them

Two Cornell scientists chosen for 51 Pegasi b Fellowships

The three-year postdoctoral fellowship, granted to Lígia Fonseca Coelho and Zach Ulibarri, provides recipients with resources, freedom, and flexibility to conduct theoretical, observational, and experimental research in planetary astronomy.

The frozen ocean world of Enceladus, a moon of Saturn.

Ice shell thickness reveals water temp on ocean worlds

Decades before any probe dips a toe – and thermometer – into the waters of distant ocean worlds, Cornell astrobiologists have devised a way to determine ocean temperatures based on the thickness of their ice shells, effectively conducting oceanography from space.

comet 'Oumuamua
An artist's depiction of the interstellar comet 'Oumuamua, as it warmed up in its approach to the sun and outgassed hydrogen (white mist), which slightly altered its orbit. Image credit: NASA, ESA and Joseph Olmsted and Frank Summers of STScI

Could the solar system be teeming with interstellar objects? We'll soon find out (op-ed)

In this Space.com editorial by Darryl Seligman (Research Associate, Cornell Astronomy Department) learn how new telescopes will give breathtaking insight into what, or who, is visiting Earth's neighborhood.

Jake Turner

Earth to be exhibit A for lunar exoplanet research

With the help of a Cornell astronomy researcher, the first radio telescope ever to land on the moon will lay the foundation for detecting habitable planets in our solar system by observing Earth as if it’s an exoplanet.

Cassini spacecraft swoops through plumes from Enceladus
Dramatic plumes spray water ice and vapor from many locations along the famed "tiger stripes" near the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus. The tiger stripes are four prominent, approximately 84-mile- (135-kilometer-) long fractures that cross the moon's south polar terrain. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

A new way to characterize habitable planets

This "study emphasizes new directions for future missions to measure habitability on other worlds, using Saturn's icy moon Enceladus as a primary example."

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