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CSI explores factors that determine if a planet or moon can host life and how we could find it by bringing together experts from a wide range of disciplines, from sciences, engineering to media who work together with some of the planet’s most talented students at the undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral level.

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Mission Statement and History Give to CSI Administrative Team and Contacts

A bold mission

When we explore other worlds, what once seemed the only way a planet could be turns out to be somewhere in the middle range of a vast spectrum of possibilities…

― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

Learn about the mission and history

CSI News

Giant planet atmospheres vary widely, JWST confirms

3/27/2023

Researchers discovered that the atmosphere of exoplanet HD149026b, a ‘hot Jupiter’ orbiting a star comparable to our sun, is super-abundant in the heavier elements carbon and oxygen.

Astronomers discover metal-rich galaxies in early universe

2/27/2023

Scanning the first images of a well-known early galaxy taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Cornell astronomers were intrigued to see a blob of light near its outer edge.

Support Arts & Sciences on Giving Day March 16

3/02/2023

On Thursday, March 16, join the Cornell community to make a difference for students on Cornell Giving Day.

Postcards from Earth: Hologram project showcased at Intrepid

2/28/2023

A yearslong effort to launch Cornell-made satellite technology into a neighboring solar system is making a terrestrial stop at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City.