Novel calculations peg age of ‘baby’ asteroid
A Cornell-lead 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.
A Cornell-lead 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.
Your gift allows the College to fulfill our mission — to prepare our students to do the greatest good in the world.
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.
Telescopes could better detect potential chemical signatures of life in the atmosphere of an Earth-like exoplanet more closely resembling the age the dinosaurs inhabited than the one we know today, Cornell astronomers find.
Crevasses play an important role in circulating seawater beneath Antarctic ice shelves, potentially influencing their stability, finds Cornell-led research based on first-of-its-kind exploration by an underwater robot.
Thirty years ago, astronomer Carl Sagan convinced NASA to turn a passing space probe’s instruments on Earth to look for life — with results that still reverberate today.
An interdisciplinary group of researchers has identified a missing aspect of Darwin's theory that applies to essentially everything.
The quartz crystals are only about 10 nanometers across (one-millionth of one centimeter), so small that 10,000 could fit side-by-side across a human hair.
The new camera "is actually a very different way of observing the sky,” said A&S research scientist Amit Vishwas ’10, M.Eng.,’14, Ph.D. ’19.
The Brinson Prize supports postdoctoral scholars in carrying out novel research in observational cosmology.
Astronomers using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have identified carbon dioxide on the icy surface of Europa – one of a handful of worlds in our solar system that could potentially harbor conditions suitable for life.
A&S Astronomy and Cornell Center for Astrophysical and Planetary Science (C-CAPS) faculty are key to “Thriving in Space,” released Sept. 12.
Eighty-four students have been selected as National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP) fellows in 2023, comprising the largest group of new fellows Cornell has ever fielded in one year.
Researchers have discovered a molecule that could determine the temperature and other characteristics in exoplanets.
A Cornell astronomer who is part of JWST’s Early Release Science program report the first detection of hydrogen peroxide on Ganymede and sulfurous fumes on Io, both the result of Jupiter’s domineering influence.
The Riccardo Giovanelli Graduate Student Support Fund was announced July 15 at “Gas-trophysics Across the Universe.”
“This was a critical meeting as we are less than two years out from anticipated first light with the facility," said project director Gordon Stacey.
Anna Y. Q. Ho and others chosen will pursue science investigations that will contribute to Israel’s first space telescope mission, planned to launch into geostationary orbit around Earth in 2026.
NASA has selected 14 U.S.-based researchers to join the Ultraviolet Transient Astronomy Satellite (ULTRASAT) science team, including Cornell's Dr. Anna Ho, Assistant Professor of Astronomy.
"Astronomers have yet to determine the cause of luminous fast blue optical transients, and the latest they have detected is raising even more questions."
For the past six years, CCAT Observatory Inc., a nonprofit research organization formed by more than a dozen academic institutions led by Cornell University, has been developing a new telescope, the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST, pronounced “feast”) and its supporting infrastructure to observe at sub-millimeter wavelengths. The infrastructure is currently under construction at an altitude of 5,600 m near the summit of Cerro Chajnantor in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, one of the driest places on Earth. Since water vapor absorbs the wavelengths of interest, the site is arguably the best ground-based location for submillimeter observations due to its thin, ultradry atmosphere. Once complete, it will be the second highest observatory in the world.
“With AstroCup, what we really wanted was not only to launch the cup but to launch this conversation.”
A 15-year collaboration in which Cornell astrophysicists have played leading roles has found the first evidence of gravitational waves slowly undulating through the galaxy.
"Scientists say they are starting to find signs of an elusive type of rumbling through space that could be created by the biggest, baddest black holes in the universe."
A recently discovered exoplanet may be key to solving how close a rocky planet can be to a star, and still sustain water and life.