News
An important milestone
Dear Reader, In October 2012, CHEOPS was selected as the first small mission in ESA’s science programme. This week, 65 months of intense work later, we are essentially ready to ship the telescope to Airbus Defense and Space in Madrid to be integrated onto the platform for a launch from Kourou in French Guyana in […]
Continue Reading
CHEOPS leaves the University of Bern
Construction of the space telescope CHEOPS is finished. The engineers from the Center for Space and Habitability (CSH) at the University of Bern will package the instrument this week and send it to Madrid, where it will be integrated on the satellite platform. CHEOPS (CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite) is to be ready to launch in early […]
Continue Reading
“We have to meet hundreds of requirements”
Christopher Broeg is project manager of the CHEOPS mission. A consortium of more than 100 scientists and engineers in eleven European countries is involved in the mission. At the University of Bern, Christopher Broeg and a team consisting of 15 members have developed, assembled and tested the space telescope over the past five years. The […]
Continue Reading
TESS ready for take-off
NASA plans to launch a new exoplanet satellite called TESS on 16 April 2018. It is expected to discover thousands of exoplanets around nearby bright stars. Members of the NCCR PlanetS are involved in the NASA project and synergies are expected between TESS and CHEOPS, the space mission under co-leadership between Switzerland and ESA. Like […]
Continue Reading
The “La Recherche” prize to Christophe Lovis
Christophe Lovis, a member of NCCR PlanetS at the University of Geneva, received the “La Recherche” prize at the beginning of this year, awarded by the prestigious French magazine of the same name and aimed at the general public. In an article published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophisycs Christophe Lovis and his colleagues demonstrated […]
Continue Reading
„Who doesn’t want to be a comic-strip hero?”
On 28 March 2018, the exhibition “Expedition Sonnensystem – Mit der ETH auf Forschungsreise durchs All” opened to the public at the ETH museum focusTerra in Zurich. Among others, seven scientists from the NCCR PlanetS can be seen there – in comics. PlanetS also contributed financially to the realisation of the exhibition. The new exhibition […]
Continue Reading
“Science gets more personal thanks to the comic heroes”
Ulrike Kastrup, head of focusTerra, talks about the exhibition “Expedition Sonnensystem” at the ETH museum in Zurich and why she chose comics as a style element to tell the stories. PlanetS: Mrs. Kastrup, you have decided to choose the style element comic strip for the exhibition. What were the reasons for this? Ulrike Kastrup: Because […]
Continue Reading
Thirsty for Space Science
Worldwide Science Slam series «Astronomy on Tap» lands in Bern If talking about astronomy and space science over drinks in a bar sounds like fun to you, you better save these space-time coordinates: April 30th at ONO in Bern. Come to the very first Astronomy on Tap, Bern event to listen to various talks, from […]
Continue Reading
Water during planet formation and evolution
This last February the workshop ‘Water during planet formation and evolution’ took place at the University of Zurich. Grown out of an initiative from junior researchers across the University of Zurich, ETH Zurich and University of Bern, more than 60 international scholars gathered to discuss the crucial role of water on planets in the solar system […]
Continue Reading
CHEOPS rocket sticker selected
A colourful design by Denis Vrenko of Celje, Slovenia, will be featured on the rocket that will launch CHEOPS, the CHaracterising ExOplanets Satellite, into space. Denis Vrenko is a twenty-five year old graphics designer and final-year architecture student at the University of Ljubljana. His design was one of over 300 entries in a competition organised […]
Continue Reading
