Founded to find life in our universe

Carl Sagan Institute

The Carl Sagan Institute (CSI) was founded to find life in the universe. Based on the pioneering work of Carl Sagan at Cornell, our interdisciplinary team is developing the forensic toolkit to find life in the universe, inside the Solar System and outside of it, on planets and moons orbiting other stars.

CSI news

An artist's concept of NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft. NASA/JPL-Caltech

Scientists supporting mission to assess Europa’s habitability

NASA has launched its next flagship science mission, Europa Clipper – the space agency's first dedicated spacecraft mission to study an ocean world beyond Earth – and Cornell scientists will play a role in reporting discoveries about its habitability.

Celebration of Carl Sagan’s 90th birthday being held Nov. 9

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.

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."

Nearly 400 active volcanoes punctuate the Jupiter moon Io. Using flyby data from NASA’s Juno mission that examines the volcanoes, doctoral student Madeline Pettine led a group of Cornell astronomers to study a fundamental process in planetary formation and evolution: tidal heating. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

Volcanoes may help reveal interior heat on Jupiter moon

By examining flyby data from the NASA spacecraft Juno, the astronomers found that Io has active volcanoes at its poles that may help to regulate tidal heating – which causes friction – in its magma interior.

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.”

Microscale kirigami robot folds into 3D shapes and crawls

Researchers created a robot less than 1 millimeter in size that is printed as a 2D hexagonal “metasheet” but, with a jolt of electricity, morphs into preprogrammed 3D shapes and crawls.

Nearby star-forming cluster, NGC — This stunning new mosaic of images from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope showcases the nearby star-forming cluster, NGC 1333. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Scholz, K. Muzic, A. Langeveld, R. Jayawardhana

Webb Discovers Six New “Rogue Worlds” that Provide Clues to Star Formation

Reported in Universe Today, "a team of astronomers working with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) announced the discovery of six rogue planet candidates in an unlikely spot. The planets, which include the lightest rogue planet ever identified (with a debris disk around it), were spotted during W...

New analysis of Cassini data yields insights into Titan’s seas

Using data from precision radar experiments, a Cornell-led research team analyzed and estimated the composition and roughness of sea surfaces on Titan.

More CSI news

Britney Schmidt: Exploring Earth’s oceans to reach Europa

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Founded to find life in the universe

The Carl Sagan Institute was founded in 2015 at Cornell University to find life in the universe and explore other worlds – how they form, evolve and if they could harbor life both inside and outside of our own Solar System.