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Carl Sagan Institute
The Carl Sagan Institute: Pale Blue Dot and Beyond was founded in 2014 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York to further the search for habitable planets and moons in and outside the Solar System. It is focused on the characterization of exoplanets and the instruments to search for signs of life in the universe. The founder and current director of the institute is astronomer Lisa Kaltenegger. The institute, inaugurated in 2014 and renamed on 9 May 2015, collaborates with international institutions on fields such as astrophysics, engineering, earth and atmospheric science, geology and biology with the goal of taking an interdisciplinary approach to the search for life elsewhere in the universe and of the origin of life on Earth. Carl Sagan was a faculty member at Cornell University beginning in 1968. He was the David Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences and director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies there until his death in 1996. Research The main goal ...
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Cornell University
Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson White in 1865. Since its founding, Cornell University has been a Mixed-sex education, co-educational and nonsectarian institution. As of fall 2024, the student body included 16,128 undergraduate and 10,665 graduate students from all 50 U.S. states and 130 countries. The university is organized into eight Undergraduate education, undergraduate colleges and seven Postgraduate education, graduate divisions on its main Ithaca campus. Each college and academic division has near autonomy in defining its respective admission standards and academic curriculum. In addition to its primary campus in Ithaca, Cornell University administers three satellite campuses, including two in New York City, the Weill Cornell Medicine, medical school and ...
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Spectral Signature
Spectral signature is the variation of reflectance or emittance of a material with respect to wavelengths (i.e., reflectance/emittance as a function of wavelength). The spectral signature of stars indicates the composition of the stellar atmosphere. The spectral signature of an object is a function of the incidental EM wavelength and material interaction with that section of the electromagnetic spectrum. The measurements can be made with various instruments, including a task specific spectrometer, although the most common method is separation of the red, green, blue and near infrared portion of the EM spectrum as acquired by digital cameras. Calibrating spectral signatures under specific illumination are collected in order to apply a correction to airborne or satellite imagery digital images. The user of one kind of spectroscope looks through it at a tube of ionized gas. The user sees specific lines of colour falling on a graduated scale. Each substance will have its own uni ...
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Space Science Organizations
Space is a Three-dimensional space, three-dimensional continuum containing position (geometry), positions and direction (geometry), directions. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions. Modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless four-dimensional Continuum (theory), continuum known as ''spacetime''. The concept of space is considered to be of fundamental importance to an understanding of the physical universe. However, disagreement continues between philosophers over whether it is itself an entity, a relationship between entities, or part of a conceptual framework. In the 19th and 20th centuries mathematicians began to examine geometries that are Non-Euclidean geometry, non-Euclidean, in which space is conceived as ''space curvature, curved'', rather than ''flat space, flat'', as in the Euclidean space. According to Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, space around gravitational fields deviate ...
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Pale Blue Dot
''Pale Blue Dot'' is a photograph of Earth taken on February 14, 1990, by the ''Voyager 1'' space probe from an unprecedented distance of over kilometers ( miles, 40.5 AU), as part of that day's ''Family Portrait'' series of images of the Solar System. In the photograph, Earth's apparent size is less than a pixel; the planet appears as a tiny dot against the vastness of space, among bands of sunlight reflected by the camera. Commissioned by NASA and resulting from the advocacy of astronomer and author Carl Sagan, the photograph was interpreted in Sagan's 1994 book, '' Pale Blue Dot'', as representing humanity's minuscule and ephemeral place amidst the cosmos. ''Voyager 1'' was launched on September 5, 1977, with the initial purpose of studying the outer Solar System. After fulfilling its primary mission and as it ventured out of the Solar System, the decision to turn its camera around and capture one last image of Earth emerged, in part due to Sagan's proposition. Ov ...
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Cornell Chronicle
The ''Cornell Chronicle'' is the in-house weekly newspaper published by Cornell University. History Prior to the founding of the ''Chronicle'' in 1969, campus news was reported by the ''Cornell Era'' and then by '' The Cornell Daily Sun''. During the Willard Straight Hall takeover in April 1969, the campus learned of unfolding events through the student-edited ''Sun'', the student radio station WVBR, and the independently owned ''Cornell Alumni News.'' However, Cornell's administration, most notably then-Vice President for Public Affairs Steven Muller, was dissatisfied because those media reported events in a manner that was somewhat critical of the administration. Over the summer, plans for the ''Chronicle'' were put in place and it debuted on September 25, 1969. The ''Chronicle''s first office was in the basement of the Edmund Ezra Day Hall administration building, and Kal Lindenburg, a ''Sun'' alumnus, was hired as its first Managing Editor. It was printed every Wedne ...
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Albedo
Albedo ( ; ) is the fraction of sunlight that is Diffuse reflection, diffusely reflected by a body. It is measured on a scale from 0 (corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation) to 1 (corresponding to a body that reflects all incident radiation). ''Surface albedo'' is defined as the ratio of Radiosity (radiometry), radiosity ''J''e to the irradiance ''E''e (flux per unit area) received by a surface. The proportion reflected is not only determined by properties of the surface itself, but also by the spectral and angular distribution of solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface. These factors vary with atmospheric composition, geographic location, and time (see position of the Sun). While directional-hemispherical reflectance factor is calculated for a single angle of incidence (i.e., for a given position of the Sun), albedo is the directional integration of reflectance over all solar angles in a given period. The temporal resolution may range from seconds ...
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EurekAlert!
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the betterment of all humanity. AAAS was the first permanent organization established to promote science and engineering nationally and to represent the interests of American researchers from across all scientific fields. It is the world's largest general scientific society, with over 120,000 members, and is the publisher of the well-known scientific journal ''Science''. History Creation The American Association for the Advancement of Science was created on September 20, 1848, at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was a reformation of the Association of American Geologists and Naturalists with the broadened mission to be the first permane ...
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Biofluorescence
Biofluorescence is fluorescence exhibited by a living organism: part of the organism absorbs light or other radiation at one wavelength and emits visible light at another, usually longer. The absorbed radiation is often blue or ultraviolet, while the light emitted is typically green, red, or anything in between. Biofluorescence requires an external light source and a fluorescent biomolecular substance, which is often one or more proteins, but can consist of other biomolecules. A perceptible example of fluorescence occurs when the absorbed radiation is ultraviolet, thus invisible to the human eye, while the emitted light is in the visible spectrum; this gives the fluorescent substance a distinct color that can only be seen when it is exposed to UV light. Since biofluorescence was discovered in ''Aequorea victoria'' and the green fluorescent protein structure was resolved, many other organisms have been shown to exhibit biofluorescence and many new fluorescent proteins have been di ...
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European Extremely Large Telescope
The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is an astronomical observatory under construction. When completed, it will be the world's largest optical and near-infrared extremely large telescope. Part of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) agency, it is located on top of Cerro Armazones in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. The design consists of a reflecting telescope with a segmented primary mirror and a diameter secondary mirror. The telescope is equipped with adaptive optics, six laser guide star units, and various large-scale scientific instruments. The observatory's design will gather 100 million times more light than the human eye, equivalent to about 10 times more light than the largest optical telescopes in existence as of 2023, with the ability to correct for atmospheric distortion. It has around 250 times the light-gathering area of the Hubble Space Telescope and, according to the ELT's specifications, will provide images 15 times sharper than those from Hubble. T ...
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Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (shortened as the Roman Space Telescope, Roman, or RST) is a NASA infrared space telescope in development and scheduled to launch to a Sun–Earth L2 orbit by May 2027. It is named after former NASA Chief of Astronomy Nancy Grace Roman. The Roman Space Telescope is based on an existing wide field of view primary mirror and will carry two scientific instruments. The Wide-Field Instrument (WFI) is a 300.8-megapixel multi-band visible and near-infrared camera, providing a sharpness of images comparable to that achieved by the Hubble Space Telescope over a 0.28 square degree field of view, 100 times larger than imaging cameras on the Hubble. The Coronagraphic Instrument (CGI) is a high-contrast, small field of view camera and spectrometer covering visible and near-infrared wavelengths using novel starlight-suppression technology. Stated objectives include a search for extra-solar planets using gravitational microlensing, along wi ...
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Eurekalert!
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the betterment of all humanity. AAAS was the first permanent organization established to promote science and engineering nationally and to represent the interests of American researchers from across all scientific fields. It is the world's largest general scientific society, with over 120,000 members, and is the publisher of the well-known scientific journal ''Science''. History Creation The American Association for the Advancement of Science was created on September 20, 1848, at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was a reformation of the Association of American Geologists and Naturalists with the broadened mission to be the first permane ...
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Electromagnetic Spectrum
The electromagnetic spectrum is the full range of electromagnetic radiation, organized by frequency or wavelength. The spectrum is divided into separate bands, with different names for the electromagnetic waves within each band. From low to high frequency these are: radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays. The electromagnetic waves in each of these bands have different characteristics, such as how they are produced, how they interact with matter, and their practical applications. Radio waves, at the low-frequency end of the spectrum, have the lowest photon energy and the longest wavelengths—thousands of kilometers, or more. They can be emitted and received by antenna (radio), antennas, and pass through the atmosphere, foliage, and most building materials. Gamma rays, at the high-frequency end of the spectrum, have the highest photon energies and the shortest wavelengths—much smaller than an atomic nucleus. Gamma rays, X-rays, and ...
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