News
Three years of HARPS-N solar data to help detecting “Earth 2.0”
In order to better characterize the noise introduced by stars when searching for new exoplanets, five years ago the HARPS-N spectrometer, mounted on the Telescopio Nationale Galileo, was equipped with a small dedicated solar telescope. The data acquired by this telescope during the first three years of observations – collected every five minutes on all […]
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Stars with planets show no special fingerprint
With the participation of the NCCR PlanetS, an international team of scientists has determined the chemical composition of 84 stars with great precision. Contrary to popular scientific theory, their results show that there seem to be no clear chemical differences between stars with and without planets. For 25 years it has been known planets orbit […]
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When in doubt, aim high
Veerle Sterken had been away from a paid job in cosmic dust science for three years. Then she convinced the European Research Council (ERC) to fund her project on interstellar dust. That kick-started her “second career” in astrophysics and led to her project being welcomed into PlanetS by the board. “I will send out my […]
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Three Earth-like planets identified in two planetary systems
PlanetS astronomers associated with an international team have estimated the density of the planets in two planetary systems. Discovered by the Kepler satellite, K2-32 and K2-233 are planetary systems with 4 and 3 planets respectively. The diameters of the planets have been measured by Kepler thanks to the transit method which uses the obscuration of […]
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Science taught her to stand up for herself
Yogita Kadlag is an astrophysicist from Maharashtra, India. Since October 2019, she’s been a member of the NCCR PlanetS. From her hometown, where she is stranded due to the Corona pandemic, she spoke to us about her work, cultural differences and discrimination. “It’s raining heavily at the moment; can we try again in 20 minutes?”, […]
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Professor wanted!
The Space Research and Planetology Division within the Physics Institute of the University of Bern has an opening, as per 1 January 2022, for a full or associate professor (100%) in the field of Theoretical Planetology.
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First exposed planetary core discovered
Researchers led by the University of Warwick have discovered the first exposed core of an exoplanet, which provides an unprecedented glimpse inside the interior of a planet. Christoph Mordasini from the University of Bern is leading the theoretical interpretation of this discovery.
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The planetary scientist has one great wish
Christoph Mordasini deals with the formation and evolution of planets inside and outside our solar system. In an interview he explains why the University of Bern has been at the forefront of space research since an experiment on the moon. And he reveals the question to which he would very much like to have an […]
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Planetary research in weightlessness
In a laboratory of a special kind, researchers from the National Centre of Competence in Research PlanetS were able to conduct experiments on planet formation on board the fourth Swiss parabolic flight campaign. It is a cool, cloudy morning at the military airfield in Dübendorf. The fourth Swiss parabolic flight campaign is about to launch […]
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ELT METIS Instrument Passes Design Milestone
METIS, the powerful imager and spectrograph for the European Southern Observatory’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), has passed its Preliminary Design Review. METIS, short for Mid-infrared ELT Imager and Spectrograph, will make full use of the giant main mirror of the telescope to study a wide range of science topics, from objects in our Solar System […]
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