Author Archive
A great mingling experience
At the first General Assembly of the NCCR PlanetS, 93 participants gathered in Anzère (VS) at the end of January 2015 to present their projects, discuss their goals and get to know each other. «They do know how to pick a meeting location,» twittered Brian Schmidt adding a nice photo of Anzère with snowy mountains. […]
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A Nobel prize in Anzère
«I spent my childhood in Alaska where snowstorms like today are commonplace. So when I was about your age, I wanted to study meteorology,» said Brian Schmidt to fifteen teenagers from Ayent who came to meet him on the sidelines of the General Assembly of the NCCR Planets. The American astronomer finally opted for astronomy, […]
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Test chamber for CHEOPS is installed
An outstanding vacuum chamber in a brand new laboratory is now waiting for the space telescope CHEOPS at the Center for Space and Habitability (CSH) of the University of Berne. Space experts will put the completely assembled flight instrument in the chamber and calibrate it therein under space conditions. At five and a half tones, […]
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3000 children’s drawings will fly
3000 children’s drawings will fly to space with CHEOPS. The Space Telescope CHEOPS (CHaracterizing ExOPlanet Satellite) will be the first mission dedicated to search for transits by means of ultrahigh precision photometry on about 700 bright stars already known to host planets. The satellite will be built under the lead of researchers from the Centre […]
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Solar eclipse and «Tag der Astronomie»
On Friday, March 20th people all over Europe will have a chance to follow a partial solar eclipse. The following day, Saturday, March 21st we celebrate the «Tag der Astronomie». Both events present a great occasion for astronomy clubs to reach out to the general public and to inform about astronomy and space research and […]
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Exoplanets at Museum of Geneva
The Natural History Museum of Geneva celebrates the 20th anniversary of the first exoplanet discovery. 20 years ago, two astronomers from the Geneva Observatory discovered the first planet around a Sun-like star. The Museum of Natural Sciences in Geneva, the university and the NCCR PlanetS decided to commemorate the event by organizing the largest […]
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The Geneva bus in Bern
Prof. Michel Mayor will hold a lecture at the University of Bern on Monday, April 20th 2015, 7.00 pm 200 years ago, Geneva, which just had found again its independence after a period of French domination, was aware of the need to ally with a larger state. At that time, the period of the city-states […]
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Preparing for the first site visit
On May 19th and 20th 2015 the review panel of the NCCR PlanetS will carry out its first site visit at the University of Bern – a crucial meeting. «This event is extremely important for us because it is the first impression we will give to the panel members,» says Yann Alibert, science officer of […]
Continue ReadingFlickr – General Assembly Anzère
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NASA’s Chief Scientist visits Bern
Are we alone in the universe? «This is one of the questions that drives us forward», says Ellen Stofan, NASA’s chief scientist, who is convinced that we will find an answer in the next 20 years: «That is terribly exciting.» A special guest was welcomed by members of NCCR PlanetS on Feb. 25th 2015: NASA’s […]
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