Spacecraft image center brings the universe to NYS

On a hot day in August 2024, Zoe Learner Ponterio challenged the kids at Camp Beyond Binary in Deposit, New York, to build a comet using potting soil, water, salt, corn syrup and vinegar. The campers enthusiastically mixed up a goo that, with the addition of dry ice, transformed into a hard, comet-like ball.

But an even more powerful lesson followed.

Science - and astronomy - are for everyone, said Ponterio, manager of Cornell's Spacecraft Planetary Image Facility (SPIF).

"Even if you don't like STEM, there are careers in astronomy for lawyers and horticulturists and artists," Ponterio says. "I challenge kids to try and name a job that you don't think has anything to do with space, and on the fly I can always find a way that it relates to space."

SPIF, which manages print and online images taken by NASA missions, supports astronomy research and performs outreach across the state, conducts dozens of such events every year. In the last eight years alone, SPIF has reached more than 41,000 people, many of them through the K-12 programs Ponterio runs in the schools of upstate New York. In 2025, she worked with 40 schools in 24 districts.

SPIF reaches its 46th anniversary this year, and will celebrate with activities and door prizes, on March 7 from 1- 4 p.m., on the third floor of the Space Sciences Building. The event is free and open to the public.

"The presentation at Camp Beyond Binary captivated the youth and struck a perfect note, helping them to feel supported and encouraged in their life and career goals," says Emery Grant, camp program director, which serves 24 counties in New York state and is a project of Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways, open to all children of all genders.

Camper Mirah Cook, then a high school freshman from Syracuse, was so inspired by the presentation that when she saw Ponterio again - at a 2025 ceremony where Ponterio received the inaugural Changemaker Award from the Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways for her work with Camp Beyond Binary - Cook asked her for an internship.

After training on special software, Cook worked with Ponterio mapping dunes and channels on Saturn's moon Titan, preparation for NASA's upcoming Dragonfly mission, which will fly a rotocraft around Titan's surface. Cook will also be credited for her work on a forthcoming research paper that will include some of her mapping.

Cook says the time working at SPIF "helped give me a real vision for my future, and helped me find a home and belonging in the field of space science." She is planning a career in astrophysics.

Added her mother, Adaiah Cook: "This internship allowed our daughter to envision a future for herself that she has been excited about ever since."

Bringing home astronomy's 'fun'

SPIF was founded in 1980 as one of NASA's Regional Planetary Image Facilities (RPIFs) - libraries that stored the physical copies of images from NASA missions and provided places researchers could visit to use the images. When NASA retired the RPIF program in 2020, SPIF became wholly part of the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science.

Today, SPIF continues to offer researchers assistance in locating and working with images, as well as instruction in specialized software programs, in addition to its extensive outreach.

Ponterio, a former teacher and Cornell astronomy graduate student who worked on the Mars Exploration Rovers, tailors presentations to the audience. She shares historic images from SPIF's collections to illustrate ideas like the composition of Pluto's famous "heart" and which moons might harbor life.

She often brings out some of the collection's most iconic images, to show how much we've learned and how much is left to discover.

"People love seeing that we still have all the prints from the Voyager spacecraft, and Mariner, Viking, Galileo. Of the digital images, the one that always gets a wow is the picture that Cassini took of Enceladus' water vapor plumes - you can actually see the cracks where the jets are coming out from this moon of Saturn," Ponterio says. "When they see me, the professional, totally floored every time by this image, it really brings home how fun astronomy is."

The New York state curriculum is rich in astronomy-based topics, says Steve Houston, Earth and space science teacher with the Baldwinsville Central School District. "Zoe helps give our astronomy-based topics more relevance and purpose. I often hear my students saying 'wow!' and 'that's so cool!' as they learn about the solar system and NASA missions through Zoe's presentation."

To support teachers, SPIF participates in multiple annual conferences to train educators in classroom activitiesrelated to space science, such as simulating radar on Venus and making holograms of solar system objects.

"SPIF is one of the big impacts that Cornell has locally," says SPIF director Alexander Hayes, the Jennifer and Albert Sohn Professor of astronomy (A&S). "SPIF's [previous] data manager, Rick Kline, saw that this wealth of planetary exploration images would be an amazing tool for exciting and educating K-12 school children, summer camps and more. And that became an ever-growing, important component of SPIF, and set SPIF's identity as a regional center for outreach. Even though the outreach wasn't funded by NASA, Cornell went and did it anyway."

Beyond Earth, beyond campus

Thanks to SPIF, students don't have to visit Cornell's campus to have a space experience: The Sagan Planet Walk, created by SPIF in partnership with Ithaca's Sciencenter, takes visitors on a journey through the solar system in a 1.2-km, 1 to 5 billion scale model of the solar system that stretches from downtown Ithaca to the Sciencenter. SPIF is in charge of updating the text and images on the signs for the Planet Walk, and manages the website, with Hayes' research group and students pitching in.

SPIF has similar collaborations with science learning centers around the state.

"The presentations provided by SPIF staff have enriched our STEM-themed summer camps, Friday night public programs and yearly astronomy festival," said Drew Deskur, director of the Kopernik Observatory & Science Center in Vestal, New York. "Having access to SPIF has helped raise Kopernik's stature in the community as the 'go to' place for world class astronomy outreach content."

SPIF also has a strong involvement with 4-H. Ponterio was part of the New York State 4-H STEM Challenge planning team for many years, creating virtual experiences that connected youth to STEM and space learning experiences. Currently, she co-chairs the Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) 4-H STEM Program Work team, a network seeking to increase STEM opportunities for New York youth.

"Zoe often says that everything can be connected to space - and she makes it happen," says Alexa Maille, director of NYS 4-H Youth Development and critical issue leader, youth and families. "She is a creative and collaborative leader, bringing in new ideas that seed new programs, activities and opportunities for youth and educators in 4-H."

All-ages appeal

Space exploration is inspiring for adults as well as children, and in 2025 SPIF hosted 51 private tours and group visits, with a total of 726 visitors. "We're unique in that we are both an active research facility and a public facility," Ponterio says. "You're coming to a museum classroom space where it's all also happening and that really grabs people."

Recently the Men's Breakfast Club of the Cancer Resource Center visited SPIF and "loved it," says club member Bob Riter. "The guys were all abuzz as we drove back to our cars. We've been doing these outings for about a dozen years and this morning's event was acclaimed as the best ever."

Angelina Risnoveanu '28, physics major and SPIF outreach assistant, recalls helping to run the Mars virtual reality stationat a SPIF open house when a large family walked in - from preschoolers to grandparents - and "each of them found the experience utterly fascinating."

The fully immersive VR experience uses actual images taken by the Perseverance rover at 19 different locations, so that participants see Mars as the rover did. The system is the first of its kind, created by members of Cornell's Comparative Planetology and Solar System Exploration research group, which includes SPIF.

"The next big frontier is space, and I believe it's our responsibility to generate excitement and maintain curiosity for astronomy and all the fields related to it," Risnoveanu says. "This is exactly what SPIF does, with space-related activities and topics that anybody can appreciate. SPIF truly has something to offer for everyone."

Linda B. Glaser is news and media relations manager for the College of Arts and Sciences.