Carl Sagan Institute | 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

Student Spotlight: Derek Berman

11/28/2023

Derek Berman, doctoral student in geological sciences, studies the geophysical environment of Mars’ Jezero crater.

Jurassic worlds might be easier to spot than modern Earth

11/02/2023

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.

Earth as seen from Galileo probe — Earth as seen by the Galileo probe in 1990. NASA/JPL

How would we know whether there is life on Earth? This bold experiment found out

10/16/2023

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.

Nature’s missing evolutionary law identified

10/16/2023

An interdisciplinary group of researchers has identified a missing aspect of Darwin's theory that applies to essentially everything.

Webb detects quartz crystals in clouds of hot gas giant

10/16/2023

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.

Cornell astronomy to offer Brinson Prize

10/02/2023

The Brinson Prize supports postdoctoral scholars in carrying out novel research in observational cosmology.

Webb telescope finds carbon source on Jupiter’s Europa

9/22/2023

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.

Decadal survey sets agenda for biological, physical sciences in space

9/15/2023

A&S Astronomy and Cornell Center for Astrophysical and Planetary Science (C-CAPS) faculty are key to “Thriving in Space,” released Sept. 12.

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.