Pale Blue Dot – Astronomy Now

Voyager 1’s famous look back at Earth – a ‘pale blue dot’ – 30 years later

13 February 2020 Astronomy Now

NASA releases a reprocessed version of the iconic “pale blue dot” portrait of Earth as imaged by the Voyager 1 probe in 1990.

Stanford astronomers observe the birth of an alien planet

19 November 2015 Astronomy Now

Stanford University researchers announce evidence of an exoplanet being born that could move us one step closer to understanding the process of planet formation around other stars. The alien planet, called LkCa 15 b, orbits a star 450 light-years away and appears to be on its way to growing into a world similar to Jupiter.

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Institute for Pale Blue Dots renamed in honour of Carl Sagan

10 May 2015 Astronomy Now

Carl Sagan’s highly inspirational 1980 TV series “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage” launched many a career in astronomy. Now the Carl Sagan Institute: Pale Blue Dot and Beyond — a research institution devoted to the pursuit of Sagan’s challenge to explore other worlds, to learn if they, too, contain life — was unveiled at Cornell University on May 9th.

Finding infant Earths and potential life just got easier

7 December 2014 Astronomy Now

Two researchers at New York’s Cornell University have found that on infant worlds, the habitable zone is located further away from their young parent star than previously thought. Life could arise on planets in the early phase of the coolest stars.