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A&S Astronomy and Cornell Center for Astrophysical and Planetary Science (C-CAPS) faculty are key to “Thriving in Space,” released Sept. 12.
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2023/09/decadal-survey-sets-agenda-biological-physical-sciences-space
Researchers have discovered a molecule that could determine the temperature and other characteristics in exoplanets.
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2023/08/thermometer-molecule-confirmed-exoplanet-wasp-31b
A Cornell astronomer who is part of JWST’s Early Release Science program report the first detection of hydrogen peroxide on Ganymede and sulfurous fumes on Io, both the result of Jupiter’s domineering influence.
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2023/07/james-webb-space-telescope-sees-jupiter-moons-new-light
“This was a critical meeting as we are less than two years out from anticipated first light with the facility," said project director Gordon Stacey.
/news/science-plans-telescopes-first-light-focus-ccat-consortium-meeting
Rachel Bean, the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor in the Department of Astronomy and senior associate dean for math and science, has been named interim A&S dean.
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2023/07/dean-jayawardhana-named-provost-johns-hopkins
A 15-year collaboration in which Cornell astrophysicists have played leading roles has found the first evidence of gravitational waves slowly undulating through the galaxy.
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2023/06/after-15-years-gravitational-waves-detected-cosmic-hum
"Scientists say they are starting to find signs of an elusive type of rumbling through space that could be created by the biggest, baddest black holes in the universe."
/news/scientists-have-found-signs-new-kind-gravitational-wave-its-really-big-0
“Gas-trophysics Across the Universe,” a July 15 symposium, will celebrate the work and lives of renowned Cornell astronomers Peter Gierasch and Riccardo Giovanelli.
/news/gas-trophysics-symposium-expands-work-two-cornell-astronomers
“Gas-trophysics Across the Universe,” a July 15 symposium, will celebrate the work and lives of renowned Cornell astronomers Peter Gierasch and Riccardo Giovanelli.
/news/gas-trophysics-symposium-expands-work-two-cornell-astronomers-0
The Heising-Simons Foundation has announced the 2023 recipients of the 51 Pegasi b Fellowship. Dr. Rixin Li is one of eight recipients.
/news/51-pegasi-b-fellowship-awarded-dr-rixin-li-0
Dr. Darryl Seligman is one of 59 recipients of the 2023 Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Research Fellows.
/news/nsf-postdoctoral-fellowship-awarded-dr-darryl-seligman-0
“These new observations are another step forward in understanding the remarkable engines and the diversity of fast radio bursts.”
/news/reversible-magnetic-field-found-around-fast-radio-burst-first-time
Scientists were surprised when a NASA satellite detected that lower- and higher-energy X-rays were polarized differently, with electromagnetic fields oriented at right angles to each other.
/news/neutron-stars-x-rays-reveal-photon-metamorphosis
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.
/news/giant-planet-atmospheres-vary-widely-jwst-confirms
Insights from Oumuamua could advance our understanding of planet formation in this solar system and others.
/news/first-known-interstellar-interloper-resembles-dark-comet
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.
/news/astronomers-discover-metal-rich-galaxies-early-universe
A U.S.-New Zealand research team recognized a shift as evidence of “ice pumping” – a process important to the stability of the Ross Ice Shelf.
/news/robot-provides-unprecedented-views-below-antarctic-ice-shelf
Cornell astronomers discovered a companion galaxy estimated at 1.4 billion years old while scanning images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
/news/astronomers-discover-metal-rich-galaxies-early-universe-0
First-of-their-kind observations beneath the floating shelf of a vulnerable Antarctic glacier reveal widespread cracks and crevasses where melting occurs more rapidly, contributing to the glacier’s retreat.
/news/underwater-robot-helps-explain-antarctic-glaciers-retreat
Alberto G. Fairén led an inaugural study of a dynamic analogous Earth environment where changes can be analyzed over many years.
/news/spanish-lagoon-proposed-mars-astrobiological-time-analog
The Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope “will be able to look regularly at frequency ranges very few other telescopes can even detect."
/news/cornell-led-telescope-project-completion-sight
"Close-ups of Jupiter and its gorgeous cloud-tops star in the latest batch of images sent back from NASA’s Juno orbiter."
/news/photos-see-giant-planet-jupiter-looking-its-best-new-images-just-back-nasas-juno-spacecraft
"A Dream of Discovering Alien Life Finds New Hope for Lisa Kaltenegger and her generation of exoplanet astronomers, decades of planning have set the stage for an epochal detection."
/news/dream-discovering-alien-life-finds-new-hope-0
The program matches undergraduate students with summer opportunities to work side by side with faculty from across the College.
/news/nexus-scholar-applications-open-summer-2023
Using computer simulations, Cornell researchers demonstrate that strong reflections can be generated by interference between geological layers, without liquid water or other rare materials.
/news/layering-not-liquid-astronomers-explain-mars-watery-reflections
Faculty respond to the release of the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope.
/news/cornell-astronomers-cheer-new-space-telescopes-first-images
Professor Jayaram N Chengalur will take charge as the 10th director of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR).
Chengalur completed his doctoral and postdoctoral studies from Cornell University.
Cornell researchers contributed to the first direct visual evidence of something compact and very massive at the center of the Milky Way.
/news/team-reveals-first-image-black-hole-our-galaxys-heart
J.J. Zanazzi, Ph.D. ’18, has been selected for a 2022 51 Pegasi b Fellowship, which provides exceptional postdoctoral scientists with the opportunity to conduct theoretical, observational, and experimental research in planetary astronomy.
/news/astronomy-alum-chosen-51-pegasi-b-fellowship
On the evening of Dec. 12, 2021, Cornell astronomers Gordon Stacey and Thomas Nikola were dangerously short on time. They’d been awake for nearly 24 hours, with another all-nighter ahead of them.The skin on their hands had dried out and cracked from living for five weeks at a dizzying elevation in Chile’s Atacama Desert. And they were short-...
/news/chasing-data-astronomers-race-explore-ancient-galaxies-0
At a dizzying elevation in Chile, two astronomers had only hours left to collect data from light that had taken 11.5 billion years to reach Earth.
/news/chasing-data-astronomers-race-explore-ancient-galaxies
On Cornell’s eighth Giving Day, held March 16, 15,905 alumni, students, faculty, staff, parents and friends from more than 80 countries made gifts totaling a record-breaking $12,268,629.
/news/more-12m-donated-support-students-24-hours
Gifts allow the College to fulfill its mission: preparing students to do the greatest good in the world.
/news/support-arts-sciences-giving-day-march-16
In this Science article, read about how scientists spotted a set of diagonal fractures in Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier that nearly span the entire shelf.Cornell's Associate Professor Britney Schmidt and research scientist, Peter Washam, sent an instrument-studded robot called Icefin into the ocean finding incursions of warm water beneath the...
/news/ice-shelf-holding-back-keystone-antarctic-glacier-within-years-failure
A $5 million alumni gift will help to support doctoral students in humanities fields within the College of Arts & Sciences.
/news/alumni-gift-supports-doctoral-students-humanities
In this SciTechDaily article, read about how the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) captured an image of the most massive planet-hosting star pair to date, b Centauri and its giant planet b Centauri b.Read the full story in SciTechDaily.
/news/surprise-planet-discovered-around-extreme-star-pair
The program connects undergraduates in A&S with opportunities to work side by side on research with Cornell faculty from across the College.
/news/nexus-scholars-program-applications-now-open
The Nexus Scholars program will leverage the student-to-faculty ratio and the vibrant research enterprise in A&S to expand opportunities for students, while also enhancing the culture of collaborative scholarship at Cornell.
/news/new-program-expands-undergrad-research-opportunities
In this Air & Space Magazine article, read about the upcoming launch of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope - the most powerful, expensive, and eagerly anticipated telescope ever to gaze out into the universe.Read the full story here.
/news/telescope-will-change-astronomy
The European Astrobiology Network association (EANA) is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. For that reason, EANA organized several special events and activities in 2021. One of these activities was the EANA outstanding paper award contest. The winner has been announced:Fairén et al., “The Complex Molecules Detector (CMOLD): A fluidic-...
/news/mars-research-paper-wins-award
Next month, a European rocket carrying the James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to launch into space. In this New Yorker article, read about lead scientists, including Cornell's Nikole Lewis, who will work with the JWST’s NIRSpec (near-infrared spectrograph) instrument.Read the full story in The New Yorker.
/news/nasas-new-telescope-will-show-us-infancy-universe-0
Saul Teukolsky, the Hans A. Bethe Professor of Physics and Astrophysics in the College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded the International Centre for Theoretical Physics’ 2021 ICTP Dirac Medal and Prize for his contributions to the detection of gravitational waves.Teukolsky is the first Cornell faculty member to receive the medal, which is...
/news/teukolsky-awarded-2021-dirac-medal-0
Cornell astronomers say the detection of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus shows evidence of explosive volcanoes on the mysterious planet.
/news/trace-gas-phosphine-points-volcanic-activity-venus
Even the most extreme objects in the universe – including black holes – must obey certain rules.A central law for black holes predicts that the total area of their event horizons – the boundary beyond which nothing can ever escape – should never shrink. This law is Hawking’s area theorem, named after physicist Stephen Hawking, who derived the...
/news/hawkings-black-hole-theorem-observationally-confirmed-0
Professor Nikole Lewis is one of four faculty winners of the 2021 GPSA Faculty Teaching, Advising, and Mentorship Award. This highly competitive award, given by the Graduate and Professional Student Association each year, recognizes outstanding faculty who excel in their teaching, mentorship, and advising of graduate and professional students....
/news/professor-nikole-lewis-wins-award-0
More than a hundred people gathered virtually at the end of April for the 2021 annual conference on the CCAT-prime project, which is building the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST) in Chile. “First light” is scheduled for 2023.
/news/annual-conference-new-telescope-moves-science-ahead
Voyager 1 – one of two sibling NASA spacecraft launched 44 years ago and now the most distant human-made object in space – still works and zooms toward infinity.As the craft toils, it has long since zipped past the edge of the solar system through the heliopause – the solar system’s border with interstellar space – into the interstellar medium....
/news/emptiness-space-voyager-1-detects-plasma-hum-1
In this Nature Astronomy paper, Jean-Luc Margot (UCLA), Don Campbell (Cornell Astronomy) and colleagues describe their use of Earth-based radar observations of Venus obtained in 2006-2020 to measure its spin axis orientation, spin precession rate, moment of inertia and length-of-day variations.Full paper here.Also view this NBC News release.
/news/spin-state-and-moment-inertia-venus
One of the key goals of gravitational wave astronomy is to understand and characterize binary black hole spins, according to Vijay Varma, a Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow in physics in the College of Arts and Sciences.By measuring the masses and spin rates of binary black hole systems in which two of the super-compact astronomical objects orbit each...
/news/black-hole-spin-finding-could-shed-light-relativity-stars-0