Archive | Research Highlights 2019

2019/12/18

© ESA/ATG medialab

CHEOPS successfully launched – the search for a "twin Earth" begins!

CHEOPS is a mission of the European Space Agency (ESA), in which Switzerland plays a leading role. Following its successful launch and the usual tests in orbit, the satellite will begin its approximately four-year mission at the end of March 2020. Scientists around the world eagerly await the data on exoplanets that will be collected, underscoring the significant contribution of the Swiss research community to this mission.

2019/12/05

© ESA/M. Pédoussaut

Swiss space telescope CHEOPS: Rocket launch set for 17 December 2019

The space telescope CHEOPS is scheduled to begin its journey into space on Tuesday, December 17th on board a Soyuz rocket from the European Space Agency (ESA) in Kourou, French Guiana. CHEOPS is a joint mission of ESA and Switzerland, led by the University of Bern, in collaboration with the University of Geneva.

2019/10/09

© University of Bern, Illustration: Thibaut Roger

Liquifying a rocky exoplanet

A hot, molten Earth would be around 5% larger than its solid counterpart. This is the result of a study led by researchers at the University of Bern. The difference between molten and solid rocky planets is important for the search of Earth-like worlds beyond our Solar System and the understanding of Earth itself.

2019/09/26

© CARMENES/RenderArea/J. Bollaín/C. Gallego

A planet that should not exist

Astronomers detected a giant planet orbiting a small star. The planet has much more mass than theoretical models predict. While this surprising discovery was made by a Spanish-German team at an observatory in southern Spain, researchers at the University of Bern studied how the mysterious exoplanet might have formed.

2019/09/16

© ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS

Bernese camera shows strange craters and dune fields on Mars

The Bernese Mars camera CaSSIS on board the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) space probe of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian space agency Roscosmos has delivered new, impressive images of Mars. These provide evidence of gas eruptions in dune fields, climate change, and dry avalanches on Mars.

2019/08/29

© University of Bern, Illustration: Thibaut Roger

Hints of a volcanically active exomoon

A rocky extrasolar moon (exomoon) with bubbling lava may orbit a planet 550 light-years away from us. This is suggested by an international team of researchers led by the University of Bern on the basis of theoretical predictions matching observations. The “exo-Io” would appear to be an extreme version of Jupiter’s moon Io.

2019/07/29

© ESA/ATG medialab

CHEOPS passes final test before launch

The CHEOPS space telescope has successfully passed the final test for its launch on a Soyuz rocket from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. CHEOPS is a joint mission between ESA and Switzerland, led by the University of Bern. It will support the search for potentially habitable planets.

2019/05/08

© NASA/JPL-Caltech

Rare-Earth metals in the atmosphere of a glowing-hot exoplanet

KELT-9 b is the hottest exoplanet known to date. In the summer of 2018, a joint team of astronomers from the universities of Bern and Geneva found signatures of gaseous iron and titanium in its atmosphere. Now these researchers have also been able to detect traces of vaporized sodium, magnesium, chromium, and the rare-Earth metals scandium and yttrium.

2019/03/29

© ESA/ATG medialab

Penultimate stop before journey for CHEOPS space telescope

The CHEOPS (CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite) space telescope was presented to the media in Madrid today for the last time before being shipped to the Kourou spaceport. From there, CHEOPS will embark on its journey into space in fall 2019. A success story for Switzerland as a research location – and for the University of Bern. A look back and a look ahead.

2019/03/14

© ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS

Bernese Mars camera CaSSIS returns spectacular images

Three years ago, on 14 March 2016, the Bernese Mars camera CaSSIS started its journey to Mars with the "ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter" spacecraft. The camera system developed at the University of Bern has been observing Mars from its primary science orbit since April 2018 and provides high-resolution, colour images of the surface. On 2 March 2019, CaSSIS also delivered its first image of InSight, NASA's lander on Mars.