The geologic shape of what were once shorelines through Mars’ northern plains convinces scientists that two large meteorites – hitting the planet millions of years apart – triggered a pair of mega-tsunamis. These gigantic waves forever scarred the Martian landscape and yielded evidence of cold, salty oceans conducive to sustaining life.
Searching vast cosmic communities like real estate agents rifling through listings, Cornell astronomers now hunt through time and space for habitable exoplanets – planets beyond our own solar system – looking at planets flourishing in old star, red giant neighborhoods.Astronomers search for these promising worlds by looking for the “habitable zone,” the region around a star in which water on a planet’s surface is liquid and signs of life can be remotely detected by telescopes.
Cornell astrophysicists Saul Teukolsky and Lawrence Kidder have earned a share in the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics – a $3 million award – that recognizes those who helped create the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and its ability to find gravitational waves. The discovery announced in February provided strong confirmation of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
Think “Game of Thrones” meets “Hunger Games.” For the annual Cornell Fashion Collective show on March 12, warriors, rangers and magicians – models draped in LED lights and electroluminescent tape – will role-play on the runway.
In testimony before the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies March 3, Jonathan Lunine, the David Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences, discussed the rationale for scientific, seafaring journeys to Jupiter’s moon Europa, and to Saturn’s moons Enceladus and Titan – trips that may take place in the 2020s.
After combing through Cornell-archived data, astronomers have discovered the pop-pop-pop of a mysterious, cosmic Gatling gun – 10 millisecond-long “fast radio bursts” – caught by the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico, as reported in Nature, March 2.
In the shadow of Saturn’s hulking planetary mass, Titan’s liquid hydrocarbon seas seem a bit choppy, astronomers say.Two and a half years ago, surfing through Cassini mission radar images of Ligeia Mare, the second-largest sea on Saturn’s moon Titan, a team of Cornell astronomers found a bright, mysterious feature – a transient feature they dubbed “Magic Island.”
A platoon of Cornell faculty, alumni and students contributed to the mix of eminent global researchers at the 2016 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C., Feb. 11-15. They offered fresh thought on the world’s scientific strides.
Professor Saul Teukolsky and senior research scientist Lawrence Kidder in the physics and astronomy departments contributed to the historic discovery about gravitational waves that proved Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity.
After examining hidden density waves from Saturn’s B-ring – the largest of the planet’s awe-inspiring, cosmic bands – astronomers confirm that this circular object is as lightweight as it is opaque. Their findings are published online in the journal Icarus.
Six panelists, including Cornell faculty members, who attended the 21st United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris last fall recalled the historic proceedings for a spirited audience that spilled into the hallway of the Tompkins County Public Library’s BorgWarner Room Feb. 3.
Stephanie Wisner ’16 presented her research at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting and exposition last week in Washington, D.C.
Thanks to nearly 300 solar panels installed on both buildings in mid-December, the sun’s rays hitting the roof on Cornell’s Human Ecology Building and Klarman Hall now produce energy.
Paul Mutolo ’94 harnesses the hydrogen future, bringing it to bear on the carbon present: For his TEDx Chemung River talk in November, Mutolo, director of external partnerships at Cornell’s Energy Materials Center, imagined a world where cars no longer use oil. “There would be no smog in our cities. There would be no wars over oil-rich regions.
Benedict Anderson, a Cornell professor emeritus in government who wrote “Imagined Communities,” the book that set the pace for the academic study of nationalism, died Dec. 13 in East Java, Indonesia. He was 79.Anderson, the Aaron L. Binenkorb Emeritus Professor of International Studies, taught at Cornell from 1967 to 2002.
To review current astrobiological knowledge and assess the prospects of life beyond Earth, the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology heard testimony Sept. 29 in Washington, D.C., from Cornell’s Jonathan Lunine and three other space experts on the reasons, ways and means for space exploration’s next steps.
To feed the world’s burgeoning population, producers must grow crops in more challenging terrain – where plant roots must cope with barriers. To that end, Cornell University physicists and Boyce Thompson Institute plant biologists have uncovered a valuable plant root action, in that roots – when their downward path is blocked, as often occurs in rocky soil – display a “grow and switch” behavior, now reported in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
When members from the Cornell Glee Club’s 1966 tour of Southeast Asia joined the current singers on stage Sept. 19 at Bailey Hall, passion poured through the music. The audience replied with a standing ovation, making it a Homecoming concert for the ages.
The National Science Foundation has selected the Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility (CNF) to be part of the newly established National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI). Cornell will receive $8 million from the federal agency over five years.
Sibling suns – made famous in the “Star Wars” scene where Luke Skywalker gazes toward a double sunset – and the planets around them may be more common than we’ve thought, and Cornell astronomers are presenting new ideas on how to find them.
To sort out the biological intricacies of Earth-like planets, astronomers have developed computer models that examine how ultraviolet radiation from other planets’ nearby suns may affect those worlds, according to new research published June 10 in Astrophysical Journal.
While looking for life on planets beyond our own solar system, a group of international scientists has created a colorful catalog containing reflection signatures of Earth life forms that might be found on planet surfaces throughout the cosmic hinterlands. The new database and research, published in the March 16 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), gives humans a better chance to learn if we are not alone.
