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Michel Mayor
Born: 12.01.1942 Study: Physics at the University of Lausanne PhD: 1971 at the University of Geneva Professor at the University of Geneva since 1984 Honorary Professor since 2007, official year of retirement Designer of the spectrographs ELODIE (51pegb), CORALIE and HARPS discovering more than 500 exoplanets Among many other honors the price of the journal […]
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Didier Queloz
Born: 23 February 1966 Study: Physics at the University of Geneva PhD: 1995 at the University of Geneva Current Position: Professor of Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University and Geneva University. Didier Queloz is at the origin of the exoplanet revolution in astrophysics. Until recently, the Solar System has provided us with the […]
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«The diversity is huge»
When Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz discovered the first exoplanet orbiting a normal star twenty years ago, they started a revolution in astronomy: An ancient human dream became research reality. «There is an infinite number of worlds, some like and some unlike our own.» With this quote by the Greek philosopher Epicurus, the Genevan astronomer […]
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A cosmic detective story
«Comets give us good clues that the planet formation era was violent and the early solar system very different from today,» said Willy Benz, director of PlanetS, at a conference in Madrid. «Comets were born during the formation of the solar system in the first 10 to 100 million years», explained Willy Benz in […]
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Hot and stormy at high altitudes
Studying the atmosphere of an exoplanet, astronomers of the NCCR PlanetS derived a temperature profile with unprecedented precision. Their results are based on data collected with a relatively small ground-based telescope. This opens completely new perspectives for the characterization of remote exoplanetary atmospheres. High up in the atmosphere of the exoplanet named HD 189733b it […]
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Big crowd at the museum
500 people! Never before hosted the Natural History Museum of Geneva so many people for an opening of a temporary exhibition. Even tough it is the largest exhibition ever presented by the Museum, it is doubtless the topic of exoplanets that attracted such a crowd on the 21st of March 2015. Who never dreamed of […]
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This start has been wonderful
A great setting in the Alps, 93 participants, and excellent scientific presentations, the General Assembly in Anzère kept all promisses, and marked in many ways a tangible start of our NCCR PlanetS. To ensure the long-term cohesion of this ambitious initiative at the beginning, we need to get to know each other better, to learn about […]
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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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