The world's foremost planet hunting team, headed by Professor Geoff Marcy, search for other worlds beyond our solar system. The first rocky, earth-like planet was recently discovered orbiting the nearby star, GJ 876.

BIOspheres of Mars: Ancient and Recent Studies (“BioMARS”), is a multi-campus, collaborative research effort funded by a $6.1 million grant from the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) focusing on studies relevant to the exploration of Mars and other extraterrestrial bodies.

CIPS researchers and faculty are integrally involved in the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM). the Kepler Mission, and instrumentation development of the Multiple Instument Distributed Aperture Array Sensor (MIDAS) for missions to the Moon, Mars, and outer planets.

CIPS faculty are involved in a wide range of research: observation of Uranus, Neptune, Titan, Io, and asteroids using Keck adaptive optics, development of techniques for retrieving the 3-dimensional aerosol distribution on Titan, observations and theory of the Kuiper belt, the new planet "Xena," and protoplanetary and planetesimal debris disks.

Go to the Events Page for details on events and courses

Fall 2009 CIPS Events TBA

• FALL 2009
  Graduate Seminar: Rocky & Icy Planets
  Astro 250
  Instructors: G. Marcy, M. Manga, E. Chiang
  M 12 noon- 2:00pm
  265 McCone Hall
• FALL 2009
  Planetary Astrophysics
  Astro C162/ EPS C162
  Instructor: I. de Pater
  T Th 2:30pm - 5:00pm
  544 Campbell Hall