Peering through alien atmospheres
Jonathan Barrientos is exploring the possibility of life on Earth-like planets beyond our solar system, called exoplanets.
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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
Cornell-chaired panels advocate Uranus, Enceladus missions
Professors Jonathan I. Lunine and Alexander Hayes played leadership roles in identifying U.S. national scientific priorities through 2033.
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Glowing Planets and Chemical Fingerprints
Nikole Lewis will be one of the first to characterize distant exoplanets using infrared data from the newly launched James Webb Space Telescope.
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Tint of life: Color catalog built to find frozen worlds
As ground-based and space telescopes improve, astronomers need a color-coded guide to compare Earth’s biological microbes to cold, distant exoplanets to grasp their composition.
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Tint of life: Color catalog built to find frozen worlds
Aided by microbes found in the subarctic conditions of Canada’s Hudson Bay, an international team – including researchers from Portugal’s Instituto Superior de Agronomia and Técnico, Canada’s Université Laval in Quebec, and Cornell – has created the first color catalog of icy planet surface signatur...
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Comet 67P emits ancient molecular oxygen from its nucleus
After a European spacecraft rendezvoused with Comet 67P about seven years ago, astronomers now have found a cosmic revelation: It emits molecular oxygen drawn from its nucleus.
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50th Anniversary of Pioneer 10
NASAFifty years ago, on March 2nd, 1972, Pioneer 10 touched off from Cape Canaveral on humanity’s first mission to the outer solar system. Just five months before the first moon landing in 1969, NASA approved a pair of spacecraft designated Pioneer F and G. They would use entirely nuclear power and ...
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Taking Earth with us: Is space exploration "sustainable"?
In this Interesting Engineering article, read about how space agencies from around the world will be venturing farther out into space than ever before. This includes returning to the Moon (perhaps to stay this time), exploring Mars, and maybe even establishing human settlements on both. Beyond that,...
Read MoreBritney Schmidt: Exploring Earth’s oceans to reach Europa
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.