News
New space exhibition and planetarium show
On 24 November 2016, the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne opened the new space exhibition. A few days later, the planetarium show «Out there» celebrated first worldwide premiere. Both the exhibition and the show have been made possible thanks to the support of NCCR PlanetS. Among the speakers at the opening of the new […]
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Spectacular images of Mars
«We saw Hebes Chasma at 2.8 metres per pixel. That’s a bit like flying over Bern at 15’000 kilometres per hour and simultaneously getting sharp pictures of cars in Zurich,» says Nicolas Thomas, principal investigator of the Mars camera CaSSIS and Director of the Physics Institute at the University of Bern. The Bernese instrument made […]
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Research highlights
In modern astronomy researchers not only observe celestial objects, but also build them in computers and follow their evolution over time. These simulations reveal exciting new insights that – of course – have to be validated by observations. In the last few weeks, members of PlanetS published new results about comets, giant planets and earth-sized […]
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How taxpayers benefit
Click on “next” to see the first/next question. Click on the images to find out what she/he answers. The interviews were first published in the magazine “Schweizer Familie”, No. 41/2016.
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Observing in La Silla logbook
The cliché of the astronomer spending all his/her time the eye behind his/her telescope, looking to the sky, is outdated. Most of the life of the current astronomer is spent behind the screen of a computer. However there are still times where he/she goes to observe, in some remote place like La Silla observatory in […]
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Space Trip on the Gornergrat
This October, the Stellarium Gornergrat launched two special weeks called “Space Trip” for hotel guests on site. Being a new format, we awaited the premiere with great expectations and were not disappointed. By Timm Riesen During the Space Trip weeks, hotel guests were offered one or two activities every day, introducing them to the night […]
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FOUR ACES wins ERC grant
On Thursday 17 November the European Research Council (ERC) announced to David Ehrenreich, leader of NCCR PlanetS sub-project 3.2 in Geneva, that his project submitted in February 2016 would be funded by a Consolidator grant. This grant is awarded by the ERC to researchers who have between 7 and 12 years of experience and it […]
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CaSSIS sends first images from Mars orbit
The Mars Camera, CaSSIS, on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter captured its first high resolution images of the Red Planet last week. The Bernese camera worked almost perfectly and has provided spectacular views of the surface. CaSSIS (Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System) has been developed by a team from the University of Bern led by […]
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When scientists get emotional
“Launches are inherently dangerous,” said Nicolas Thomas, when he waited at Baikonur Cosmodrome for ExoMars to lift off in March 2016: “There is always some sort of a risk of something blowing up. As long as the thing doesn’t blow up when I am too close to it.” Thomas is Principal Investigator of CaSSIS, the […]
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Chury is much younger than previously thought
Based on computer simulations, Astrophysicists at the University of Bern conclude that the comet Chury did not obtain its duck-like form during the formation of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago. Although it does contain primordial material, they are able to show that the comet in its present form is hardly more than a […]
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