News
Cover of CHEOPS Space Telescope Open
Decisive moment for the CHEOPS space telescope: The cover was opened as intended on Wednesday, January 29, 2020 at 7:38 am. CHEOPS is now being tested for precision and the first images are being produced. CHEOPS is a joint mission of ESA and Switzerland, led by the University of Bern, in collaboration with the University […]
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Opening of the CHEOPS cover delayed by a few days
The cover of the CHEOPS space telescope was scheduled to be opened on Monday, January 27, 2020. The date is being pushed back by a few days because several tests are being repeated. The CHEOPS space telescope has been orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 700 kilometers since its launch on December 18, 2019. […]
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SPIE 2020
This year takes place again the biennial SPIE international conference on Astronomy Telescopes and Instruments. It will be held between June 14th and 19th in Yokohama (Japan), link. The last 2018 edition was held in Austin (USA) gathering 2500 visitors and 125 exhibitor companies. For the 2020 edition the Swiss astronomer consortium NCCR PlanetS and the Swiss […]
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Meteorite contains the oldest material on Earth
Researchers determined the age of stardust from a meteorite to be seven billion years – the oldest solid material ever found on Earth. Stars have life cycles. They’re born when bits of dust and gas floating through space find each other and collapse in on each other and heat up. They burn for millions […]
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CHEOPS: Computer onboard booted
Before Christmas, on 18 December 2019, a Soyuz Fregat rocket was launched in Kourou, French Guyana, and put ESA’s CHEOPS space telescope into a precise polar orbit. Now the engineers test all systems aboard. Today, the computer was successfully booted. Since CHEOPS is in Orbit, its systems have been gradually ramped up. So far, ESA […]
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Merry Christmas and happy new year!
Illustration – « La Liberté », 18.12.2019, Alex Ballaman
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Capturing alien comets
There should be interstellar comets hiding in our Solar system after making a journey of many lightyears. Maybe we have already seen one but believed it was a “normal” comet formed in the Solar system. This concludes Tom Hands, astrophysicist at the University of Zürich and member of the NCCR PlanetS. Comets that suddenly light […]
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CHEOPS successfully launched
The relief was huge when the Soyuz Fregat rocket with CHEOPS on board took off shortly before 10 a.m. MEZ on Wednesday, 18 December 2019. The spectators at the University of Bern followed the ESA live coverage from Kourou, French Guiana, with great applause. The day before, an error in the Fregat upper stage had […]
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CHEOPS launch postponed
Liftoff is currently scheduled for Wednesday, December 18, 2019 at 9:54:20 CET. On Tuesday morning, 1 hour 25 minutes before liftoff during final countdown operations, the Soyuz-Fregat launcher’s automated sequence was interrupted. The rocket with the CHEOPS space telescope on board should have taken off from ESA’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on 17.12.2019 […]
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Learning AI from NASA and Silicon Valley
Bern researcher and NASA take a cue from Silicon Valley to hatch Artificial Intelligence Technologies. Could the same computer algorithms that teach autonomous cars to drive safely help identify nearby asteroids or discover life in the universe? NASA scientists are trying to figure that out by partnering with pioneers in artificial intelligence (AI) — companies […]
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