News
The crucial role of water
Water is one of the key molecules in shaping the history and present day of our planet Earth and is crucially important for many physical, chemical and biological processes during abiogenesis, the process to transform lifeless matter into the flourishing and astounding environment we experience today. For instance, the amount of water ice was crucial […]
Continue Reading
The sky above Cerro Paranal
For two years, astronomer Henning Avenhaus has worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in Santiago, Chile, studying protoplanetary disks and planet formation. During this time, he several times had the opportunity to work at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) on Cerro Paranal. But besides sitting in the control room in front of the computer screen […]
Continue ReadingCHEOPS Model
Continue ReadingDe Naval nozzle and exoplanetary atmospheres
Continue Reading
Michel Mayor, video game character
The Icelandic firm CCP teamed up with Michel Mayor, renowned exoplanet astronomer and honorary professor at the University of Geneva, to launch the new version of EVE Online, a video game aiming to bring together science and entertainment. The objective: by manipulating real scientific data, tens of thousands of players think of conquering the galaxy, […]
Continue Reading
Could the planets of Trappist-1 house life ?
PlanetS researchers observed Trappist-1 and its planets with the Hubble Space Telescope to find out if life was possible on one of them. The habitable zone is the zone where the temperature at the surface of the planet which is there corresponds to that of the liquid water, indispensable to the appearance of life. The […]
Continue Reading
Growing planets in the computer
For her work about planet formation Julia Venturini received the prize for the best PhD in physics at the University of Bern. The PlanetS member calculated what happens when you add a new ingredient to the standard model of growing gaseous planets. «For a long time, nothing was working,» remembers Julia Venturini. But finally the […]
Continue Reading
Seven terrestrial exoplanets around a nearby star
An international team of astronomers has discovered a compact analogue of our inner solar system about 40 light-years away. Brice-Olivier Demory of the Center of Space and Habitability at the University of Bern, analysed the data collected with NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and calculated that the newly detected exoplanets all have masses less or similar […]
Continue Reading
From sand castles to cool freaks
In the three communication workshops at the PlanetS general assembly researchers discussed in groups about possible media releases and presented very creative summaries. Most of the proposed stories will be realized and published in the next weeks or months either as press releases, PlanetS news or articles in our external newsletter “The Observer”. «Tiny star», […]
Continue Reading
Ready for testing electromagnetic compatibility
At the University of Bern, the CHEOPS team integrated all electrical and electronic parts into a model of the space telescope to test whether the different units and wires operate correctly and don’t interfere with each other. The electromagnetic compatibility test will take place in the second half of February in a special chamber at […]
Continue Reading
