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CHEOPS launch slot announced

CHEOPS launch slot announced

The CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite, CHEOPS, will target 15 October to 14 November 2019 for launch as the European Space Agency ESA announced on 23 November 2018. CHEOPS will lift off on a Soyuz rocket operated by Arianespace from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, sharing the ride into space with a satellite that is part of the […]

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Encouraging prospects for moon hunters

Encouraging prospects for moon hunters

Astrophysicists of the University of Zürich, ETH Zürich and the NCCR PlanetS show how the icy moons of Uranus were born. Their result suggests that such potentially habitable worlds are much more abundant in the Universe than previously thought. The unprecedentedly complex computer simulations were performed at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) in Lugano. […]

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Two wheels for a new instrument

Two wheels for a new instrument

The Laboratory for Astronomical Instrumentation at ETH Zürich has shipped its first cryogenic wheels that were developed for the new infrared instrument ERIS on the ESO Very Large Telescope. These mechanisms will hold various filters and masks that provide unique capabilities for direct imaging and characterization of exoplanets. The Laboratory for Astronomical Instrumentation (part of […]

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Editorial

Editorial

Dear Reader, Yes! BepiColombo started on October 20 its seven-year journey to planet Mercury. After considerable technical difficulties and years of delay, the ESA satellite was successfully launched on an Ariane 5 from Kourou in French Guyana. Going to Mercury is just not easy. Being much closer to the sun than the Earth, a spacecraft […]

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BELA – The Bern altimeter’s launch to Mercury

BELA – The Bern altimeter’s launch to Mercury

BepiColombo blasted off to investigate Mercury. Nicolas Thomas, Co-Principal Investigator of the instrument BELA and Director of the Physics Institute of the University of Bern, experienced the launch first hand. Here are his impressions. By Nicolas Thomas On the way BepiColombo will launch from Kourou in the morning (European time) of October 20 2018. Having […]

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Forming Mercury by Giant Impacts

Forming Mercury by Giant Impacts

The smallest planet in our Solar System has a large iron core. How come? According to the most popular theory, Mercury lost big parts of its rocky mantle in a collision. Alice Chau and her colleagues at the University of Zürich simulated different scenarios with a super computer. Their result: Forming Mercury by giant impacts […]

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Connected to space

Connected to space

After a long tour through Europe, the CHEOPS satellite is back at Airbus Defence and Space Spain in Madrid. On its journey, it had to pass thermal-vacuum tests at Airbus facilities in Toulouse, mechanical vibration tests at RUAG Space in Zürich, and acoustic noise and electromagnetic compatibility tests at ESA’s technical centre in The Netherlands. […]

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How the moons of Jupiter were formed

How the moons of Jupiter were formed

When astrophysicists of the NCCR PlanetS at the University of Zürich analyzed their computer simulations they were amazed: The formation of the moons of Jupiter happened much faster and later than previously believed. The researchers also found out that the satellites we see today are likely not the only moons that formed around the planet, […]

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Broaden your horizons

Broaden your horizons

It was a year ago when in November the « Elargis Tes Horizons » Foundation organized with the University of Geneva a meeting between researchers from the Faculty of Science and about 500 young girls between 12 and 15 years old. The purpose of the foundation is to show girls that scientific research is within everyone’s reach. […]

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