Searching for the building blocks of life in space

Using radio telescopes, Susanne Wampfler investigates areas far away in space where new stars and planets are forming. The astrophysics assistant professor works at the Center for Space and Habitability (CSH) of the University of Bern and leads a PlanetS project. As the CSH’s Equal Opportunities Officer, she advocates for both women and men. She […]

They changed our conception of the world, no less !

This year’s Laureates have transformed our ideas about the cosmos. While James Peebles’ theoretical discoveries contributed to our understanding of how the universe evolved after the Big Bang, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz explored our cosmic neighbourhoods on the hunt for unknown planets. Their discoveries have forever changed our con-ceptions of the world.   With […]

NIRPS front-end installed at La Silla

The NIRPS spectrograph front end has been successfully installed on the ESO 3.6m telescope at the La Silla Observatory. NIRPS, often referred to as the “red arm” of HARPS, is a high-resolution spectrograph operating in the near-infrared. The main objective of NIRPS is to use the radial velocity method to detect and characterize planets orbiting […]

Drink coffee and learn about space

They say that the most important substance in the universe is water. Because you need water to brew coffee. And some people like a shot of coffee cream with it. Anyone who is a coffee connoisseur and space fan will be doubly delighted in the coming weeks. Since a few days now, one of Switzerland’s […]

The Nobel Prize opens many doors

Professors Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz are awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of the first exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star. Michel Mayor is member of the Advisory Board of the NCCR PlanetS. He talks about his best and worst memories as a researcher. Interview: Pierre Bratschi Who was a role […]

CHEOPS Team members and their favourite drawing

Accurate measurements

By Martin C.E. Huber “A neat example again how a new window to the universe opens up through improved measuring methods” – commented the President of the German Physical Society on the award of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics to Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz of Geneva Observatory. In collaboration with colleagues from Marseille […]

EPSC-DPS 2019 in Geneva

About 1700 astronomers attended the planetology congress from 15th to 20th September organized jointly by the Europeans of the EPSC and the Americans of the DPS and which took place at the International Congress Center in Geneva. The Local Organizing Committee (LOC) partly funded by PlanetS, wanted the holding of this historic congress for the […]

JURA 2019

From the 9th to the 11th of September 2019, 31 young researchers from Bern, Geneva, and Zürich gathered at the Flora Alpina hotel in Vitznau (Lake Lucerne, Switzerland) for the second edition of the NCCR Junior Research Assembly (JURA). The aim of the meeting was to bring together young researchers affiliated with the NCCR PlanetS […]

Give a name to an exoplanet

What name would you give to an exoplanet and its star several tens of light years away? To celebrate its 100th anniversary, the IAU (International Astronomical Union) proposed to all member countries to ask their people to give a name to a star and its planet. It therefore chose a star orbited by a planet […]