Author Archive
New PlanetS mailing lists
To facilitate communication among PlanetS members we created new mailing lists. They all belong to the domain nccr-planets.ch and can be used by sending emails to LIST_NAME@nccr.planets.ch, where LIST_NAME is one of the lists presented below. Currently, all mailing lists are set to “non-moderated”, which means that emails sent to the list are forwarded to […]
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Preparing the site visit
This year the visit of the expert panel mandated by the SNSF will be held at the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Geneva, co-leading house of the NCCR PlanetS, on 24 and 25 May 2016. The first day will begin with the annual report of the Director and will be followed by presentations of […]
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Planet 9 takes shape
Astrophysicists at the University of Bern have modelled the evolution of the putative planet in the outer solar system. They estimate that the object has a present-day radius equal to 3.7 Earth radii and a temperature of minus 226 degrees Celsius. In the far infrared the planet is much brighter than in the visual. How […]
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3000 drawings for CHEOPS
Children in Switzerland and all over Europe made thousands of imaginative drawings of stars, planets, rockets, satellites, aliens and CHEOPS. 3000 entries to the drawing campaign organised by the University of Bern will fly into space with CHEOPS, a space telescope being built in collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and Switzerland. You can […]
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Water in the atmosphere of a Super-Jupiter
Kappa Andromedae b is one of the few substellar objects outside our Solar System that has been directly photographed. Whereas astronomers still debate as to whether the object is an exoplanet or a brown dwarf, Kamen Todorov, member of the NCCR PlanetS at ETH Zürich, and colleagues measured the amount of water vapour in the […]
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NCCR PlanetS
Dear Reader, The year 2016 barely began when the claim was made that there is evidence for a yet undiscovered planet (Planet 9) within our solar system. You would think that nothing could stir more the astronomy community and the general public…. But here comes the direct detection of gravitational waves and the excitement reaches […]
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Swiss camera flies to Mars
On 14 March 2016, a new Mars mission will be launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. Aboard the European spacecraft is a camera built at the University of Bern – in a record time as team leader Nicolas Thomas explains. Originally, the team in Bern was selected by NASA to provide a Swiss-built telescope for an […]
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Focus on Planet Nine
Members of PlanetS have joined the worldwide race to spot the alleged ninth major object in the outer Solar System. Researchers at the University of Bern study the evolution of such a planet and estimate its visible magnitude. “And if PlanetS also gets into the search of the 9th planet” enthusiastically exclaims Stéphane Udry , […]
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Looking for life elsewhere
How do we define what “habitable” means on another planet and how do we look for life elsewhere in the Universe? These are questions the Center for Space and Habitability (CSH) at the University of Bern wants to answer. Its new director Kevin Heng is an expert in the atmospheres of exoplanets and also leader […]
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Find out more about alien worlds
They regularly appear in the news: exoplanets. But what exactly are they? And what do they have to do with Switzerland? With special information pillars, which are set up at various locations in Switzerland, the scientists of the NCCR PlanetS want to show to the general public that they are a leading organisation worldwide dedicated to […]
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