News
Confronting theory and observations
30 members of PlanetS gathered on the 9th of July 2018 in Bern for a workshop with the title “Exoplanet Demographics: Observations Confront Planet Formation Theory”. “We have such good expertise in the NCCR that you just have to bring people together,” says organizer Christoph Mordasini: “That is the challenge.” One of the reasons why […]
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When science and art meet
By Thibaut Roger On the 6th and 7th of July 2018, few thousands of visitors, from 1 to 100 years old, enjoyed the 12th edition of the Night of Science. There they could discover sciences, with the thematic of “All an art ?”, under the guidance of few hundreds of scientists and students. The NCCR PlanetS […]
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Iron and titanium in the atmosphere
Metal vapours have been detected in the atmosphere of an “ultra-hot Jupiter” by a team of astronomers led by the UNIGE. Exoplanets, planets in other solar systems, can orbit very close to their host star. When, in addition to this, the host star is much hotter than our Sun, then the exoplanet becomes as hot […]
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Tom Dooley and the young, active sun
Just about 4.5 billion years ago, our sun went through an active phase during which it shone much more brightly than it does today – a conclusion researchers reached after taking measurements at ETH Zurich using a truly unique instrument. The Institute of Geochemistry and Petrology at ETH Zurich is home to an instrument that […]
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Finding a planet with a 10 years orbit in a few months
The method of transits, consisting of detecting a dip in the luminosity of the host star at the time the planet passes, is a very effective technique to search for exoplanets. It makes it possible to estimate the radius of the planet, the inclination of the orbit and can be applied to a large number […]
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Editorial
Dear Reader, Transition – a word one hears often during a world soccer cup. It means bringing the ball forward through the middle field closer to the opponent’s goal. A critical moment in the game during which a generally pre-defined strategy is being executed with the hope to eventually score. It turns out that at […]
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Children’s drawings ready for space
Together with the CHEOPS space telescope 2748 miniaturized drawings will fly into space in the first half of 2019. The video shows how physicist Guido Bucher produced the plaques with the drawings at Berner Fachhochschule in Burgdorf. More about CHEOPS and the children’s drawings campaign: http://cheops.unibe.ch
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A peregrine falcon in the underwater palace
The Japanese space probe Hayabusa2 has reached the asteroid Ryugu. Hayabusa means peregrine falcon in Japanese, Ryugu is the name of the dragon god’s underwater palace. The mission’s scientific team includes PlanetS researchers. Martin Jutzi calculates what happens when an impactor knocks out an artificial crater on the asteroid. Henner Busemann hopes to be able […]
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Fabrication of NIRPS
The Workshop Mechanical workshop of the astronomy department of the University of Geneva: It is in this workshop that some of the components of NIRPS (Near InfraRed Planet Searcher) are manufactured, assembled and integrated into the instrument. The Geneva Observatory is responsible for the construction and installation of the NIRPS front end, which is a subsystem […]
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Great enthusiasm for small stars
TRAPPIST-1 is the name of the star around which seven planets and many current research projects revolve. Cool dwarf stars are the new favourites when searching for earth-like, life-friendly planets out in space. PlanetS teams are among the world leaders in this field of research. Brice-Olivier Demory is enthusiastic, “with our expertise here at the […]
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