"Study as if you were to live forever. Live as if you were going to die tomorrow." Isidore of Seville

Dr. Jake D.Turner

Research Associate

Department of Astronomy

Cornell University

jaketurner(at)cornell.edu

astrojaketurner(at)gmail.com

NASA is back to the Moon after 51 years!

I'm an exoplanet science advisor for NASA's ROLSES low-frequency radio telescope that landed on the south pole of the Moon onboard Intuitive Machines' IM-1 mission in Feb. 2024. This mission is NASA's first radio telescope on the Moon and will be setting the foundation for more telescopes to come.

Hello! My name is Jake Turner (he/him) and I'm currently a Research Associate at Cornell University and a member of the Carl Sagan Institute. I'm currently studying the magnetic fields, atmospheres, and orbital evolution of exoplanets. My other research interests include studying Titan's atmosphere/surface and the magnetosphere of Jupiter. My most notable research accomplishment was the first potential detection of an exoplanet in the radio (see video below), which has been a 50-year-long quest.

I have been a Research Associate at Cornell since 2018. From 2021-2024, I was a NASA Hubble/Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow. I finished my PhD from the University of Virginia in the summer of 2018. I spent two years of my PhD as a visiting student at LPC2E/CNRS in France. I received my undergraduate degree from Steward Observatory at University of Arizona and had a postbac research position for two years after graduation at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. I'm originally from Walsenburg, CO. Learn more about my me including my origin story here.

More details about my research can be found here. My research has been covered by CNN, Forbes, Sky and Telescope, and many other media outlets across the world. Most notably, my potential exoplanet radio detection was highlighted on NPR as one of 2020's best scientific discoveries.

A list of my publications can be found here or at my ADS Library.

I love sharing my passion and knowledge of astronomy with the public. For several decades, I have been deeply committed to science outreach.

An international team has just reported the first potential signs of radio emission from a planet beyond the solar system. The Carl Sagan Institute's Dr. Jake Turner, who led the research team, discusses the importance of this discovery with Dr. Ryan MacDonald.

The ROLSES radio telescope is launching aboard the IM-1 lunar mission, informed by Cornell astronomer Jake Turner’s expertise in studying exoplanets via radio transmission. Aiming to help understand the effect of the lunar environment on future lunar surface radio observatories, this mission is a pathfinder for large lunar farside radio telescopes in the future.