As an astronomer specializing in exoplanets (planets around other suns than ours), Lisa Kaltenegger, associate professor of astronomy and director of the Carl Sagan Institute, explores questions that reflect widespread interest in the search for intelligent life in the universe. In an op-ed on CNN, Kaltenegger explains how she and other astronomers look for life beyond Earth – and how technologically advanced extraterrestrials might look for us.
“We have already found thousands of exoplanets in our search for life in the cosmos, most of them using the ‘transit method’ -- seeing the way a star's light dims slightly as a planet crosses through our line of sight,” Kaltenegger writes in the piece. “Determining which of those thousands of exoplanets host life is one of the most significant scientific adventures of all time.”
Rick Ryan/Cornell University
Lead rigger Ed Foster guides the movement of the Prime-Cam support raft, a carefully choreographed step in preparing the telescope for shipment.
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This cartoon illustrates how RNA polymerase generates torsional stress in DNA during transcription. Chromatin, composed of nucleosomes with DNA wrapped around histone proteins, buffers this stress, enabling the polymerase to transcribe through nucleosomes.
