Lisa Kaltenegger

Astronomy Professor @Cornell, Director Carl Sagan Institute @CSInst, Author #AlienEarthsBook, Search for life in the Cosmos #exoplanets, #astrobiology, #cosmos

[Lisa Kaltenegger @KalteneggerLisa]

Curious about ALIEN EARTHS and how to spot life in the cosmos? Get your copy from your favorite bookstore and/or please share this on social. https://t.co/Ebmj6oOScT @StMartinsPress @MacmillanAudio
@PenguinUKBooks @Cornell #alienearths

[Lisa Kaltenegger @KalteneggerLisa]

This work is a multidisciplinary effort as part of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University, led by @lpfcoelho. If life elsewhere uses pigments anything like the ones we measured in aerial life on Earth, then we have a new way to find it — cloudy or not.

[Lisa Kaltenegger @KalteneggerLisa]

#CarlSagan imagined life in the atmosphere of Jupiter, but little did we know then about life in the air all around us on Earth. And that life is colorful! We found a new way to search for life in the cosmos! How? - read our new paper, led by @lpfcoelho @CSInst @Cornell

[Cornell Chronicle @CornellNews]

Clouds are bad for viewing stars through a telescope, but an exoplanet with cloud cover could help astronomers searching for signs of life beyond our planet, @CornellAstro researchers have found. @CSInst @IOPscience @KalteneggerLisa @CornellCALS https://t.co/qL10xQJH75

[Lisa Kaltenegger @KalteneggerLisa]

This opens a new pathway for telescopes that collect reflected light like #NASA’s #HabitableWorldsObservatory and the ESO #ExtremelyLargeTelescope: we are no longer limited to only looking for colors of life on a planet’s surface, but also in its atmosphere.

[Lisa Kaltenegger @KalteneggerLisa]

@lpfcoelho @CSInst @Cornell paper here: https://t.co/cEbWtIhuDc led by @lpfcoelho

[Lisa Kaltenegger @KalteneggerLisa]

@lpfcoelho @CSInst @Cornell This work is part of the @CSInstat @Cornell, in close collaboration with @UniversityFlor2 with @DrXner

[Lígia Fonseca Coelho 🇵🇹🇺🇲 @lpfcoelho]

Biopigments are universal survival tools across life on Earth. Now we have a way to look for them through the clouds of distant worlds. If life looks like this elsewhere, we finally have the tools to see it.

https://t.co/UbBuZ0StIy

[Cornell University @Cornell]

“There is a vibrant community of microorganisms in our atmosphere that produce colorful biopigments, which have fascinated biologists for years,” said astrobiologist Ligia Coelho, 51 Pegasi b Postdoctoral Fellow in astronomy in @CornellCAS (A&S) and fellow at the @CSInst (CSI). “I thought astronomers should know about them.” (5/9)

[Cornell University @Cornell]

Coelho led the study of “Colors of Life in the Clouds: Biopigments of Atmospheric Microorganisms as a New Signature to Detect Life on Planets Like Earth,” which published Nov. 11 in Astrophysical Journal Letters. (6/9)

[Cornell University @Cornell]

With the spectra, she said, astronomers will be able to look for biosignatures on exoplanets that have dense or even 100% cloud cover. (8/9)

[Cornell University @Cornell]

“Finding colorful life in Earth’s atmosphere has opened a completely new possibility for finding life on other planets,” said Lisa Kaltenegger, professor of astronomy and CSI director, who is second author of the study. “Now, we have a chance to uncover life even if the sky is filled with clouds on exoplanets. We thought clouds would hide life from us, but surprisingly they could help us find life.” (7/9)

[Cornell University @Cornell]

Thread: Cloud cover is bad for picnics and for viewing stars through a telescope. But an exoplanet with dense or even total cloud cover could help astronomers searching for signs of life beyond our planet, Cornell researchers have found. (1/9)

[Christopher Michel @chrismichel]

New Heroes portrait of Astronomer @KalteneggerLisa for @thenasem.

Lisa Kaltenegger works in the same office once occupied by Carl Sagan, on the upper floor of @Cornell's Space Sciences Building. The room carries the echo of his voice, that steady invitation to wonder, and she has built upon it with her own. She founded and now leads the Carl Sagan Institute, a center devoted to one of science’s most profound questions: how life begins and where else it might exist.

Kaltenegger is among the world’s leading experts on exoplanets, those distant worlds orbiting other stars. Her work bridges astronomy, chemistry, and biology, tracing the possible signatures of life written in the faintest starlight. She models how gases, oceans, and even vegetation could shape a planet’s color and reflection, helping scientists recognize what a living world might look like from light-years away.

We spoke in her office about origins, both cosmic and human. A brass orrery sat nearby, its miniature planets turning silently in the dim light. She described the early Earth as a restless experiment and the challenge of knowing what life’s first signals might have been. Our conversation drifted to Sagan’s legacy, to his insistence that science and imagination are not opposites but partners in understanding who we are.

Her recent book, Alien Earths, captures that same spirit. It is both a guide to discovery and an invitation to curiosity, written for anyone who has ever looked up at the night sky and wondered who else might be looking back.

Kaltenegger’s influence reaches far beyond Cornell. Her models shape the way new telescopes will search for habitable worlds, and her institute draws together scientists from across disciplines, united by the belief that life may be far more common than we once thought.

In person she is open and thoughtful, her enthusiasm unmistakable. The portraits from that day show her surrounded by instruments and ideas, eyes bright with the same curiosity that filled this office decades ago. For Lisa Kaltenegger, the search for other worlds is also a way of seeing our own more clearly, a reminder that wonder itself is a form of connection. @carlsagandotcom

[Lisa Kaltenegger @KalteneggerLisa]

It is a pleasure to see @chrismichel work - and I love the way he sees the world. Thank you, Chris!

[Christopher Michel @chrismichel]

“The speed limit on light, that might sound frustrating, is what allows us this privileged view of most of the universe’s past, helping us sketch the evolution of the whole cosmos.” ― @KalteneggerLisa. Portrait of Professor Kaltenegger for @theNASEM. #NewHeroes

[Carl Sagan Institute @CSInst]

⭐️New Research from CSI Fellows⭐️

Dr. Ligia Coelho (@lpfcoelho) & Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger (@KalteneggerLisa) just published a new paper on how we can search for life in the clouds of other Earths

Press Release : https://t.co/uZVCecCkeW

👇More info on the result by Dr. Coelho👇

[Lígia Fonseca Coelho 🇵🇹🇺🇲 @lpfcoelho]

Extending on this legacy, this work is part of the @CSInst at @Cornell, in close collaboration with @KalteneggerLisa. It is also a collaboration with @UniversityFlor2 with @DrXner lab.

[Lisa Kaltenegger @KalteneggerLisa]

WOW, so exciting to hear that Alien Earths is in the Top 10 Science Books of 2024 list! Exciting! @SciBookClub

[Science Book Club @SciBookClub]

🚨 Top 10 Science Books of 2024 🚨

The Trailblazers set out to read 10+ science books this year—and we did it! Our judges ranked their favorites to create this must-read list:

1️⃣ Hope for Cynics – Jamil Zaki
2️⃣ Why We Die – Venki Ramakrishnan
…and more!

[Lisa Kaltenegger @KalteneggerLisa]

Why are planets so weird? What a great question - listen in @why_thepodcast for some clues.

[Why? with Emma Kennedy @why_thepodcast]

🪐NEW EPISODE🪐

We've all seen Tatooine in Star Wars, but what are real exoplanets actually like? And how do filmmakers bring them to life onscreen?

@EmmaKennedy is joined by @KalteneggerLisa and Paul Franklin of @dneg to find out.

Listen now! 🔊⬇️
https://t.co/zfhLy3D4TM