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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.
The astronomer’s legacy can be found on Earth and far beyond—from a record-setting exhibit to an iconic portrait of our planet.
In person and online Nov. 9, thousands attended an interdisciplinary program of research presentations and music celebrated Carl Sagan’s legacy on what would have been his 90th birthday.
On the eve of what would have been Sagan's 90th birthday, well-wishers commune at Lake View Cemetery, leaving notes and trinkets.
Jupiter’s moon Europa may have conditions that could support life. To find out, NASA has launched its next flagship science mission, Europa Clipper, and Cornell scientists will play a role.
The fellowship from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation includes $875,000 in unrestricted funds to be used for research over five years.
On what would have been Carl Sagan's 90th birthday, Cornell’s Carl Sagan Institute will celebrate his legacy in an interdisciplinary day of science, music and more as part of the College of Arts & Sciences’ Arts Unplugged series.
"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."
By examining Jupiter’s moon Io – the most volcanically active place in the solar system – Cornell astronomers can study a vital process in planetary formation and evolution: tidal heating.
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.”
Drummond Fielding, Astronomy
Dongwood Chun, Astronomy
"Cornell alumni are generous with their time and efforts to assist students, to answer questions from students, or connect them to people and places."
Peter John Loewen says he's excited to support faculty in their research, meet students and showcase the value of a liberal arts education.
A group of military service members and veterans spent two weeks at Cornell as part of the Warrior-Scholar Project, which helps participants build skills and navigate transitions to higher education.
Using data from precision radar experiments, a Cornell-led research team analyzed and estimated the composition and roughness of sea surfaces on Titan.
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.
With these new appointments, the number of A&S faculty appointed to endowed professorships since fall 2018 has reached 76.
The new Simons Observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert may soon answer the great scientific question of what happened in the tiny fraction of a second after the Big Bang.
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.
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.
Coming from the University of Toronto, where he is the director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, Loewen begins his five-year appointment as the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Aug. 1.
The award recognizes Dong Lai’s “formidable and broad contributions to astrophysical dynamics, his outstanding mentoring record, and his wide-ranging professional service activities.”
A Cornell-led research team derived the age of Selam, a “moonlet” orbiting the asteroid Dinkinesh in the main asteroid belt, based only on the pair’s dynamics.
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.
The clues we find on exoplanets could be as strange as a bioluminescent glow or a rainbow hue, as astronomer Lisa Kaltenegger describes in “Alien Earths: The New Science of Planet Hunting in the Cosmos.”
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.
"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."
The newly assembled Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST), nearly the size of a five-story building, was unveiled April 4 at an event in Xanten, Germany.
The April 8 solar eclipse was “definitely life-changing,” said Emma Linscomb ’27, a member of Cornell’s Society of Physics Students.
Science on Screen® supports creative pairings of current, classic, cult, and documentary films with introductions by figures from the world of science, technology and medicine.
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 grants provide funding for students in unpaid or low-paying summer experiences to offset the cost of taking on those positions.
Samples of Martian rock and soil could be stranded if Congress doesn't adequately fund a NASA mission to retrieve them, Astronomy Chair Jonathan Lunine told a U.S. House subcommittee on March 21.
She’s being remembered by friends and colleagues as a mentor, advisor, friend and fierce advocate for the work of the department.
Clues about our planet’s ability to support life might come from Mars – yet political storms that have hit Washington, DC, threaten to leave valuable samples stranded on Mars.
Cornell students can travel right to the heart of the eclipse’s path, thanks to the student-led Astronomical Society at Cornell.
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.
Assistant professors Anna Y.Q. Ho, Chao-Ming Jian, Rene Kizilcec and Karan Mehta are among 126 early-career researchers who have won 2024 Sloan Research Fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
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.
The space telescope, targeted to launch in 2030, has Cornell astronomers Anna Y. Q. Ho and Shrinivas R. Kulkarni on the mission team.
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.
As part of their “Voyager Spacecraft Week,” the Cornell Astronomical Society joins Cornell Cinema to present “Cosmos” Episode 6: “Traveler’s Tales” on Feb. 13.
This fifth cohort of Klarman Fellows is the largest since the program was launched in 2019.
The research shows how changes in salinity may affect life in aquatic habitats on Earth and widens the possibilities for where life may be found throughout our solar system.
This "study emphasizes new directions for future missions to measure habitability on other worlds, using Saturn's icy moon Enceladus as a primary example."
Britney Schmidt, Cornell Associate Professor of Astronomy & Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, is among six faculty members to earn Cornell Engineering Research Excellence Awards!
Derek Berman, doctoral student in geological sciences, studies the geophysical environment of Mars’ Jezero crater.
After a distant star’s explosive death, an active stellar corpse was the likely source of repeated energetic flares observed over several months – a phenomenon astronomers had never seen before, a Cornell-led team reports in new research published Nov. 15 in Nature.
The bright, brief flashes – as short as a few minutes in duration, and as powerful as the original explosion 100 days later – appeared in the aftermath of a rare type of stellar cataclysm.