Creating the forensic toolkit to find life in our Solar System

Research

The Carl Sagan Institute will create the forensic toolkit to find life on planets in our Solar System and beyond using multidisciplinary research. We explore planets, moons and planetary systems: How they form, how they evolve, and whether they can harbor life. CSI engages in a wide range of exciting science and takes an interdisciplinary approach.

Research Areas

Atmospheric Spectral Signatures

We focus on planets and moons orbiting stars bright enough for future atmosphere follow-up, especially Mini- to Super-Earths (rocky terrestrial planets of 0.5-10 Earth masses) orbiting in the “Habitable Zones” around their host stars.

Atmospheric Spectral Signatures

Engaging With Life on Earth

We use Earth biota as a Rosetta Stone for the search for life on other worlds. We include life forms that are called “extreme” on our own planet, but could be dominant on other worlds and develop observing strategies and mission concepts for future searches.

Engaging With Life on Earth

Habitable Environments

We explore the Solar System to understand how giant planets and their moons form and evolve, to search for habitable environments on and within moons (like Enceladus, Europa and Titan), and to examine the farthest bodies in the solar system for clues to the early history of the solar system.

Habitable Environments

Planetary Environments

We examine Earth and Solar System input of geophysical fluid dynamics and thermal evolution of solid planets and the tectonic, glacial and volcanic features that shape their surfaces to model and study a wide range of possible planets and moons inside and outside our own Solar System.

Planetary Environments

Planetary System Formation and Evolution

We use Earth and Solar System input of geophysical fluid dynamics and thermal evolution of solid planets and the tectonic, glacial and volcanic features that shape their surfaces to model and study a wide range of possible planets and moons inside and outside our own Solar System.

Planetary System Formation and Evolution

Technological Development and Missions

We look at new approaches to space exploration, including technologies that may someday enable robotic missions to another solar system, cube sats and robotic eels.

Technological Development and Missions

CSI Research Destinations

Research Team Areas of Research

CSI Research in the news

A red star and an earth-like planet with purple lines between them (illustration)

Novel way to detect signals from stellar and exoplanetary systems unveiled

1/27/2026

Thanks to this innovation, scientists have discovered new radio bursts originating from dwarf stars and possibly from exoplanets.

Artist's illustration of the Pandora spacecraft with an exoplanet and two stars in the background

Pandora satellite launches for exoplanet observation

1/13/2026

Tasked with studying exoplanet systems around small stars, the refrigerator-sized satellite is the first in NASA’s Astrophysics Pioneers program – small-scale missions designed to train early-career scientists, including Trevor Foote, Ph.D. ’24, a former member of the research group led by faculty member Nikole Lewis.

Three people stand next to a silver device, about a foot taller than the people, made of a post, a box with electronics inside, and a circular top

Cake-pan telescope searches the sky for fast radio bursts

12/10/2025

One of the world's smallest telescopes, it is part of a series of eight terminals installed around the globe.

Person holding up an orange menstrual cup

Spaceflight-tested menstrual cup offers choice on long missions

12/02/2025

To equip astronauts with health choices for future missions, a Cornell postdoctoral fellow is leading research with AstroCup, a group that recently tested two menstrual cups in spaceflight as payload on an uncrewed rocket flight.

Artistic portrait of a person in argyle pattern sweater vest holds a small model of a molecule and looks pensive

Portraits honor 8 Cornell faculty as ‘new heroes’

11/20/2025

The portraits are part of a series by Christopher Michel, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s inaugural artist-in-residence.

Illustration of a planet covered in orange-tinted clouds

How to spot life in the clouds on other worlds

11/11/2025

Cornell researchers have created the first reflectance spectra – a color-coded key – of microorganisms that live in the clouds floating above Earth’s surface.

An orange-yellow sun with spheres of exoplanets silhouetted against it.

Is there water on an Earth-sized exoplanet? Study offers clues

9/08/2025

TRAPPIST-1 e may have an atmosphere that could support having liquid water on the planet’s surface in the form of a global ocean or icy surface, according to new research.

Carl Sagan Medal awarded to astronomer Lisa Kaltenegger

8/15/2025

The award recognizes and honors outstanding communication by an active planetary scientist to the public.

More CSI news

Scientists use color catalog of biosignatures to search for extraterrestrial life

Research Opportunities

Come and bring your ideas to the CSI – postdoctoral and graduate fellowships allow you to the freedom to engage in your own ideas – contact us and we’ll be happy to work with you on the applications – some links:

If you have a good idea contact us, we have several opportunities to work on a short or longer term basis and are looking for excellent candidates to fill those positions (positions are also announced periodically on AAS) – and will be posted here as well.