2025/10/08 ©CC by SA 3.0 IGO, ESA/TGO/CaSSIS for CaSSIS Raging winds on Mars On Mars, dust devils and winds reach speeds of up to 160 km/h and are therefore faster than previously assumed: This shows a study by an international research team led by the University of Bern. The researchers analyzed images taken by the Bernese Mars camera CaSSIS and the stereo camera HRSC with the help of machine learning. The study provides a valuable data basis for a better understanding of atmospheric dynamics, which is important for better climate models and future Mars missions. Press Release UniBE Press Release ESA ESA Image Highlight Press Release DLR Article in ScienceAdvances
2025/09/09 ©NCCR PlanetS / Thibaut Roger Artificial intelligence drives the discovery of new exoplanets Researchers from NCCR PlanetS and CSH have developed an AI model capable of predicting the architecture of planetary systems and subsequently inferring the presence of yet-to-be-discovered planets. They use the so-called Transformer architecture which is the basis of the LLMs powering tools like ChatGPT. Read More
2025/09/08 ©NASA/Princeton/Patrick McPik WP involved in NASA mission to explore the heliosphere WP is participating in the NASA Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe mission (IMAP), which is due to be launched no earlier than 23.09.2025. IMAP is dedicated to exploring the outer limits of the heliosphere, the protective bubble of solar wind in which our solar system is located. The findings should revolutionize our understanding of interstellar space, space weather and the protective function of the heliosphere for Earth. Read More
2025/07/23 Moon under bombardment Where does the Moon's exosphere come from? A TU Wien study, which the University of Bern ist taking part in, and uses real lunar rock, reveals that the erosive effect of solar wind ions on the Moon has been vastly overestimated. Read More (DE) Read More (EN/DE)
2025/06/20 ©ESA/BepiColombo/MTM Tidal forces from the Sun could have deformed cliffs on Mercury A new study by researchers of the University of Bern shows that the hilly surface of Mercury could be influenced not only by the cooling and contraction of the planet, but also by the tidal forces of the Sun. Future analysis will draw on new data from the BepiColombo mission, which is currently on its way to Mercury. BepiColombo is a joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The University of Bern is involved with two instruments. Read More
2025/05/19 Slope Streaks on Mars - not a sign of water after all? A new study led by the University of Bern and Brown University in the U.S. casts doubt on one of the most tantalizing clues that water might be flowing on present-day Mars. Researchers analyzed a global database of 500,000 streaks that occur on Martian slopes, concluding they're likely caused by dry processes. Read More
2025/05/14 Venus more tectonically alive than we thought Several tectonic processes are occurring beneath the surface of Venus, according to a new study led by researchers from the University of Bern’s Center for Space and Habitability and NASA. They found that many of the numerous “coronae” scattered over Venus’ globe are associated with gravity field perturbations. Read More
2025/02/03 AI unveils: Meteoroid impacts cause Mars to shake A study led by the University of Bern shows that impacts on Mars send seismic shockwaves farther and deeper than previously thought and many of the marsquakes recorded by the NASA InSight lander are caused by meteoroid impacts. Read More
2024/12/17 Rockfall Loctions on Mars A team lead by Bernese researchers has used a neural network to identify 1383 rockfall sites on Mars. More than half of these were previously unknown. The discovery is also relevant for future Mars missions. Read More
2024/08/08 Sometimes, salt deposits on Mars just seem to smile back at you Last week, a new paper published in Nature's Scientific Data journal revelead never-seen-before data that helps us better understand the distribution of water in ancient Mars. Read More
2024/06/10 First detection of frost on the Solar System's tallest volcanoes on Mars For the first time, water frost has been detected on the colossal volcanoes on Mars, which are the largest in the Solar System. The international team led by the University of Bern used high-resolution color images from the Bernese Mars camera, CaSSIS, onboard the European Space Agency's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft. Read More
2024/06/05 High-performance spectograph for giant telescope The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has started the design and construction of the ArmazoNes high Dispersion Echelle Spectograph (ANDES) with an international consortium involving the University of Bern. Read More
2024/05/20 NASA's JWST Cracks Case of Inflated Exoplanet A warm Neptune's methane reveals core mass and vigorous atmospheric mixing. Further information in a paper published in Nature with Dr. Elspeth Lee, Ambizione & CSH/Bernoulli Fellow as a co-author. Read More
2024/05/08 Hints of a possible atmosphere around a rocky exoplanet Researchers using the James Webb Space Telescope may have detected an atmosphere surrounding a rocky exoplanet 41 light-years from Earth. Brice-Olivier Demory, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Bern was part of the international research team that just published the results in Nature. Read More
2024/02/26 DART impact might have reshaped Hera's target asteroid ESA's Hera spacecraft for planetary defence is being prepared for a journey to the distant asteroid moon Dimorphos orbiting around its parent body Didymos. One of the first features Hera will look for is the crater left on Dimorphos by its predecessor mission DART, which impacted the asteroid to deflect its orbit. Read More
2024/01/18 Moon rocks with unique dust found A research team led by the University of Münster, including CSH Fellow Valentin Bickel, studied the interaction of dust with boulders and discovered potentially anomalous rocks on the moon. Their findings were published in the Journal of Geophysical Research - Planets. Read More
2023/11/29 An astronomical waltz reveals a sextuplet of planets An international collaboration between astronomers using the CHEOPS and TESS space satellites, including NCCR PlanetS members from the University of Bern and the University of Geneva, have found a key new system of six transiting planets orbiting a bright star in a harmonic rhythm. This rare property enabled the team to determine the planetary orbits which initially appeared as an unsolvable riddle. Read More
2023/07/26 Elusive planets play “hide and seek” with CHEOPS With the help of the CHEOPS space telescope an international team of European astronomers managed to clearly identify the existence of four new exoplanets. Dr. Solène Ulmer-Moll of the Universities of Bern and Geneva, and Dr. Hugh Osborn of the University of Bern, exploited the unique synergy of CHEOPS and the NASA satellite TESS, in order to detect a series of elusive exoplanets. Read More
2023/01/23 James Webb Space Telescope identifies origins of icy building blocks of life An international research team including the Center for Space and Habitability (CSH) at the University of Bern and the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS discovered the deepest and coldest ice ever detected in such a molecular cloud. Maria Drozdovskaya is co-author of the study. Read More
2022/11/30 Small asteroids are probably young The impact experiment conducted on the asteroid Ryugu by the Japanese Hayabusa2 mission which took place two years ago resulted in an unexpectedly large crater. With the use of simulations, a team led by the University of Bern and the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS has recently succeeded in gaining new insights from the experiment regarding the formation and development of asteroids. These insights are also important for the DART mission of NASA. Press release by University of Bern
2020/12/17 A pair of lonely planet-like objects born like stars An international research team led by Dr. Clémence Fontanive from the CSH has discovered an exotic binary system composed of two young planet-like objects, orbiting around each other from a very large distance. Although these objects look like giant exoplanets, they formed in the same way as stars, proving that the mechanisms driving star formation can produce rogue worlds in unusual systems deprived of a Sun. Press release by University of Bern
2019/10/09 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. Press release by University of Bern
2018/08/13 Iron and titanium discovered in the atmosphere of an exoplanet For the first time, two teams of researchers from the universities of Bern and Geneva, led by Profs. Drs. Kevin Heng and David Ehrenreich, respectively, have definitively discovered iron and titanium in the atmosphere of an exoplanet. The existence of these elements in gaseous form was theoretically predicted in a companion paper led by CSH Postdoc Dr. Daniel Kitzmann. The observational discovery paper was led by PlanetS Postdoc Dr. Jens Hoeijmakers. Press release by University of Bern Nature discovery paper Theory paper with predictions (ApJ) Nature blog
2018/02/05 State-of-the-art mass measurements of the TRAPPIST-1 exoplanets Led by CSH senior researcher Dr. Simon Grimm, researchers at the University of Bern obtained the most accurate estimates of the masses of the seven Earth-sized exoplanets orbiting the TRAPPIST-1 red dwarf star. Dr. Grimm performed state-of-the-art calculations that combined N-body dynamics with a genetic algorithm to analyze transit timing variations (TTVs) of the TRAPPIST-1 exoplanets. Press release by University of Bern A&A paper Press release by ESO
2018/01/18 Release of Report on Ultraviolet Direct Imager Former CSH visitor Dr. Ian Parry led the proposal to ESA of a new idea for a direct imager of habitable exoplanets in the ultraviolet range of wavelengths. arXiv manuscript
2017/02/22 Seven terrestrial exoplanets around a nearby star An international team of astronomers, including Marko Seskovic and Prof. Dr. Brice-Olivier Demory of the CSH, has discovered a compact analogue of our inner solar system about 40 light-years away with the data collected from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Press release by University of Bern Nature Astronomy paper
2016/09/30 © Photo: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team Rosetta’s momentous end Rosetta’s mission is over: After the last signal at 13:20, the spacecraft was crash-landed on comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, with the ROSINA instrument from Bern taking measurements right until the very end. At the University of Bern, hundreds of people watched with interest as they followed the end of one of the most successful missions of the European Space Agency (ESA) live. Read More
