Happy 91st birthday, Carl Sagan. 🌌🎂 Stay tuned for posts this week that honor both his research legacy and his quest to make a more scientifically literate world…

Happy Halloween! ✨ 👻 🎃 Jack-o’-lanterns aren’t the only signs of life that glow in the dark. Some organisms on Earth do, too. Would a distant planet full of glow-in-the-dark aliens be detectable to our telescopes? 🔭

6000 exoplanets. 🔭 We’ve found worlds orbiting all sorts of stars, from tiny, slow-burning reds to fast-living blue-whites to middle-of-the-road, prime-of-their-life yellows like our own...

Just over five hours until Cornell's Alpha CubeSat launches on its way to the International Space Station! Learn more about the satellite, its lightsail, and its holograms at alphacubesat.cornell.edu, and tune into the livestream of the rocket launch there!

After 9 years and over 100 students, Cornell's Alpha CubeSat mission is launching to space TOMORROW! This small cube-shaped satellite will test the deployment of the first-ever free-flying light sail in low Earth orbit, a stepping stone towards laser sailing to the stars. 🔭 alphacubesat.cornell.edu

What do you see in the light from planet TRAPPIST-1 e? Signs of alien life? Not yet... Take a look for yourself at real data in the James Webb Space Telescope graph, and read more about it below! 🔭

🔭 CSI Research spotlight! Are dinosaurs easier to detect from space than humans? Let's examine how Earth's reflected light over time can aid in the search for life!

CONGRATULATIONS to Carl Sagan Institute Director, Prof. Lisa Kaltenegger, on receiving the 2025 Carl Sagan Medal of Excellence in Public Communication of Planetary Science! This distinguished prize is awarded by the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society.

How is the Carl Sagan Institute continuing Carl Sagan’s research legacy? Here’s one of the biggest ways: measuring the colors of life! Many Carl Sagan Institute researchers work with “spectra”—light we observe from other worlds, which we can split into a full spectrum of colors.

The Carl Sagan Institute is turning 10! To celebrate over the next few months, we'll post about Carl Sagan's scientific papers, the search for alien life from both early-career and later-career CSI researchers, the wacky planets we've found along the way, and how to protect our own. 🔭 Stay tuned!

Here is M16, the Eagle Nebula! The photo was produced by three CAS members on June 25th, stacked from 184 x 30-second frames. 🔭 The exposures were taken using the 102-year-old f/15 Irving P. Church 12" Refractor at the Fuertes Observatory, stacked in Siril and post-processed in Photoshop.

Here is Messier 17, the Omega or Swan Nebula, photographed by members of the Cornell Astronomical Society this Tuesday evening (6/24/25)! The images were taken through the 12" f/15 Irving P. Church Refractor at the Fuertes Observatory. This is 124 x 30-second frames, stacked in Siril.

And after a finally clear evening (with no camera issues) of observing, here is the Cornell Astronomical Society's latest photo of M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy! This is 11 3-minute exposures, stacked, taken through the Irving P. Church 12-inch refractor at the Cornell University Fuertes Observatory.

Have you seen the Rubin Observatory's first images? Rubin has the largest digital camera in the world, and it's ready to revolutionize astronomy! Over the next decade, it will discover 2000x MORE galaxies than the 10 million shown below. Let's explore how its images compare to other telescopes 🔭

Thank you to former CSI researcher Dr. Ryan MacDonald @distantworlds.space for the insightful presentation at CSI's coffee hour last week! Dr. MacDonald's team has re-analyzed earlier data, finding no evidence for life on K2-18 b: arxiv.org/abs/2501.18477 Read more below!

Has JWST found life on another world? 🔭 An analysis of exoplanet K2-18 b points to the existence of dimethyl sulfide, a molecule produced by photosynthesizing plankton on Earth—but proving that this sign is real, and that life is the only explanation, is a difficult task. arxiv.org/abs/2504.12267

How many "habitable zone" exoplanets have you heard of? (Besides Earth! 🌍) A recently-submitted CSI paper puts new "habitable zone" planets on the map, which may be the right temperature for liquid water on their surfaces. Signs of life might also be chemically detectable in their atmospheres. 🔭

Sights from the total lunar eclipse in Ithaca, NY this morning, hosted by the Cornell Astronomical Society (CAS) at Fuertes Observatory! www.ithacajournal.com/story/news/2... Image 2: CAS Vice President Andrew Lewis with the 102-year-old telescope 🔭

In the wee hours of the morning tomorrow, the Americas will experience a "Blood Worm Moon!" "Worm" just refers to a full Moon in March. This particular full moon is also a lunar eclipse, where the Moon passes into Earth's shadow. Light bending through our atmosphere causes a blood-red color!

Scenes from the interactive exhibit before Sunday's wonderful Cornell Symphony Orchestra concert, featuring music inspired by the TRAPPIST-1 system of (potentially Earth-like) planets! Stay tuned for the full recording of Cheryl Engelhardt's piece! 🔭

A great CSI coffee hour conversation on Friday with composer Cheryl Engelhardt and Cornell Orchestras Director Gabriela Gómez Estévez! TODAY at 2 EST, tune into the Cornell Symphony Orchestra's cosmic concert! 🔭 Livestream: vod.video.cornell.edu/media/mediai...

Please join us tonight at 7 PM for a lecture by Ka'iulani Murphy, Professor at Honolulu Community College, on traditional celestial navigation! The lecture will be in Appel Commons Room 303 on Cornell's north campus, or on Zoom as linked on our website at www.cornellastrosociety.org/lecture-series.

CSI is collaborating with Cornell Orchestras for a space-themed weekend! In-person coffee hour tomorrow, and an astronomical orchestra concert on Sunday in-person or online! Concert livestream: tinyurl.com/2tp5ry35 More: carlsaganinstitute.cornell.edu/news/concert-celebrates-wonders-space-march-2

In case you missed it, we recently uploaded memories of Carl Sagan from his colleagues and collaborators. His commitment to science and his empathy for humanity is a model for each of us to emulate, now more than ever. Part 1: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jrqe... Part 2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPo2...

Sign our letter to urge Congress, President Donald Trump, and key officials to reverse this arbitrary decision. These letters have proven effective, helping us to save countless space missions, now lets save jobs. It takes less than 30 seconds to sign. Please share! www.planetary.org/advocacy-act...

If you’re an American, it takes just one minute to contact your representatives about the NASA layoffs, thanks to the Planetary Society: www.planetary.org/advocacy-act... 🔭

We’ve also been slowly uploading individual talks from Carl Sagan’s 90th birthday, so you can enjoy them one at a time. Learn the latest in exoplanet science, and hear from the wonderful Ann Druyan on how Carl Sagan was a citizen of Earth. youtube.com/playlist?lis... 🔭

In November, we celebrated Carl Sagan’s 90th birthday with talks from researchers and professors in the Carl Sagan Institute on communicating science, searching for life on icy moons, laser sailing to the stars, sniffing atmospheres of distant worlds, and more! 🎬 www.youtube.com/live/dsfTPwP...

It's been 35 years since the Pale Blue Dot image was taken at the urging of Carl Sagan, whose speech shook so many of our worldviews. To celebrate, we compiled memories of Sagan from his collaborators and partners. Read and listen to their stories: carlsaganinstitute.cornell.edu/news/memorie... 🔭

The Carl Sagan Institute is now on Bluesky! 🎉🎉🎉

@bot.astronomy.blue signup