Research
From the Apollo 11 moon landing to the Mars Exploration Rovers to Fast Radio Burst and gravity wave discoveries, Cornell astronomers have long been at the center of exciting astronomy. Cornell faculty have roles in almost three-quarters of active NASA missions, and are leading the construction of the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope in Chile, while the interdisciplinary Carl Sagan Institute is actively searching for signs of life on other worlds.
Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science
The Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science (CCAPS) fosters cooperative research among astronomers, engineers, geologists and other researchers with specialties relevant to space sciences. Connected to the Department of Astronomy, CCAPS administers collaborative research across several Cornell departments and colleges. CCAPS was founded in 1959 as the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research, by Cornell professor Thomas Gold (1920-2004), and renamed in 2015.
Astronomy Research Areas
The Carl Sagan Institute
The interdisciplinary Carl Sagan Institute is actively searching for signs of life on other worlds, creating novel strategies – a “forensic toolkit” -- for discovering life from the solar system to the Galaxy. Researchers at CSI explore planets, moons and planetary systems, including how they form and evolve, and whether they can harbor life.
Featured Mission: James Webb Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), launched December 25, 2021, is the most powerful space observatory ever built. Orbiting the Sun 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, it studies every phase in the history of our Universe — from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life. With unprecedented infrared sensitivity, Webb can peer back more than 13.5 billion years to observe the first galaxies ever formed.
Click here to learn more about the involvement of CCAPS researchers.
Missions
Cornell astronomers have been, and are, leading the direction of space exploration, including having chaired NASA’s Advisory Council and Space Science Advisory as well as panels for the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032. Cornell astronomers currently have roles in almost three-quarters of all active NASA missions.
Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope
Thirty-four years after Cornell scientists first conceived it, the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST) now rises above the Atacama Desert, near the summit of Cerro Chajnantor in Chile’s Parque Astronómico Atacama.
FYST will help answer some of the most important questions in astronomy, including how the universe works, the nature of dark energy and dark matter, how galaxies form and evolve and what happened in those mysterious first moments after the Big Bang.
Click here to learn more about FYST and the contributions of Cornell astronomers.