Research and Publications Highlights

The latest press releases, research news and publications from CSH members.

2026/01/12

Mars was half covered by an ocean

Using images from cameras on Mars orbiters, an international research team led by the University of Bern has discovered structures on Mars that are very similar to classic river deltas on Earth. These are traces of rivers that have deposited their sediments into an ocean. This shows that Mars was a "blue planet" around three billion years ago.

2025/12/16

© NASA

NASA's IMAP Mission Captures 'First Light'

The Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP), launched September 24, 2025, has taken its "first light" observations, with all 10 instruments successfully recording their first measurements in space. The University of Bern is participating in this mission with two instruments developed at WP.

2025/12/10

© University of Bern, Design: Eric Zankl

University of Bern involved in mission to study the asteroid Apophis

At its Ministerial Council meeting, the European Space Agency (ESA) has approved the RAMSES mission. The joint mission by ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency JAXA will investigate the flyby of the asteroid "Apophis" by Earth in April 2029. The University of Bern is involved in the mission with the camera CHANCES. The camera will take high-resolution images to study possible changes in the composition and properties of Apophis' surface under the influence of Earth's gravitational pull.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

2025/04/09

© University of Bern, Illustration: Thibaut Roger

Where to find the next Earth

A team from the University of Bern and the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS has developed a machine learning model that predicts potential planetary systems with Earth-like planets. The model could significantly accelerate and thus revolutionize the future search for habitable planets in the universe.

2025/02/25

© Emirates Mars Mission, Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre/UAE Space Agency

Why Mars could be red

An international research team led by the University of Bern and Brown University in the US state of Rhode Island may have solved the mystery of the reddish color of Mars. The team identified the water-rich iron mineral ferrihydrite as the main culprit of the characteristic reddish Martian dust. This discovery could not only explain the planet's color, but also point to a wetter, potentially habitable Martian past.

2025/02/25

© University of Bern, Photo: Peter Keresztes Schmidt

New findings in the search for life on Mars

Researchers from the University of Bern, in collaboration with the University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene in Algeria, have made significant progress in astrobiology. In a recently published study, they were able to detect fossil microorganisms in Messinian gypsum, which is found in Algeria, using the Bernese mass spectrometer LIMS. This shows that LIMS could also be used to search for traces of life in similar deposits on Mars in the future.

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.

2025/01/15

© UNIGE, Illustration: Thibaut Roger

Not all Hot Jupiters orbit solo

Hot Jupiters are giant planets initially known to orbit alone close to their star. During their migration towards their star, these planets were thought to accrete or eject any other planets present. However, this paradigm has been overturned by recent observations, and the final blow could come from a new study led by the University of Geneva (UNIGE). A team including the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS, the Universities of Bern (UNIBE) and Zurich (UZH) and several foreign universities has just announced the existence of a planetary system, WASP-132, with an unexpected architecture. It contains not only a Hot Jupiter but also an inner Super-Earth and an icy giant planet. These results are published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Archive - Research Highlights

2024

2024/12/17

© NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

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.

2024/10/18

© NASA/JPL-Caltech

Researchers from the University of Bern involved in NASA mission

NASA's Europa Clipper was launched on October 14, 2024, on its mission to conduct a detailed study of Jupiter's moon Europa. It will determine if the icy moon currently has habitable conditions. Four researchers from the University of Bern are members of the scientific teams for the mission cameras, the Europa Imaging System (EIS), and the mass spectrometer MASPEX on board the spacecraft.

2024/10/01

© ESO/M. Kornmesser

A sub-Earth detected around our neighbouring star Barnard

A team of scientists including researchers from the University of Bern, the University of Geneva and the NCCR PlanetS used the ESPRESSO Spectrograph to discover a sub-Earth mass exoplanet orbiting Barnard's star, the second-closest star system to the Sun. This discovery helps to understand planetary formation around red dwarfs and provides insights into the diversity of planetary systems in our cosmic neighbourhood.

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.

2024/07/30

(this image was created using AI)

Astronomers clarify how organic macromolecules are formed

An international team of researchers led by the University of Bern has used observation-based computer modelling to find an explanation for how macromolecules can form in a short time in disks of gas and dust around young stars. These findings could be crucial for understanding how habitability develops around different types of exoplanets and stars.

2024/06/27

© ESO/L. Calçada/spaceengine.org

The density difference of sub-Neptunes finally deciphered

The majority of stars in our galaxy are home to planets. The most abundant are the sub-Neptunes, planets between the size of Earth and Neptune. Calculating their density poses a problem for scientists: depending on the method used to measure their mass, two populations are highlighted, the dense and the less dense. Is this due to an observational bias or the physical existence of two distinct populations of sub-Neptunes? Recent work by the NCCR PlanetS, the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the University of Bern (UNIBE) argues for the latter.

2024/06/10

© ESA/DLR/FU Berlin

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.

2024/06/05

© ESO/G. Vecchia

High-performance spectograph for giant telescope

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has started the design and construction of the ArmazoNes high Dispersion Echelle Spectrograph (ANDES) with an international consortium involving the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the University of Bern (UNIBE), the two host institutions of the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS. This spectrograph will be installed at the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), currently under construction in Chile. ANDES will enable amongst others, to probe the atmosphere of exoplanets looking for traces of life.

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.

2024/05/08

© NASA/ESA/CSA/Ralf Crawford (STScl)

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.

2024/04/15

© University of Bern, Illustration: Thibaut Roger

How Pluto got its heart

The mystery of how Pluto got a giant heart-shaped feature on its surface has finally been solved by an international team of astrophysicists led by the University of Bern and members of the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS. The team is the first to successfully reproduce the unusual shape with numerical simulations, attributing it to a giant and slow oblique-angle impact.

2024/03/04

© ESA

The University of Bern's journey to Comet Chury

The ESA space probe Rosetta began its journey to Comet Chury on March 2, 2004. On board: the ROSINA mass spectrometer from the University of Bern. On the 20th anniversary of the launch of the European Space Agency's Rosetta space mission, uniAKTUELL looks back on the most important milestones and research highlights of this space adventure, in which Bern was involved.

2024/02/26

© Sabina Raducan

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.

2024/02/09

© Thomas Müller (MPIA)

Possible solution to an exoplanet mystery

Computer simulations by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and the University of Bern show that the migration of icy, so-called sub-Neptunes into the inner regions of their planetary systems can explain the ominous gap in the size distribution of exoplanets. With increasing proximity to the central star, vaporizing water ice forms an atmosphere that makes the planet appear larger than in its frozen state. At the same time, smaller rocky planets lose part of their original gas envelope over time, causing their measured radius to shrink.

2024/01/18

Moon rocks with unique dust found

A research team from the University of Münster, including CSH Fellow Valentin Bickel, has discovered for the first time meter-sized rocks on the surface of the moon that are covered in dust and presumably have unique properties - magnetic anomalies, for example. The findings help to understand the processes that form and change the lunar crust. The study has now been published in the "Journal of Geophysical Research - Planets".

2023

2023/11/29

© CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, Thibaut Roger/NCCR PlanetS

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.

2023/11/23

© University of Bern, Image: Ramon Lehmann; ESA/Rosetta NavCam

On the trail of cosmic ice

The Swiss government is providing CHF 1.3 million in funding for the development of a novel space instrument under the leadership of Nicolas Thomas. The aim is to use it in the future to investigate water ice beneath the surface of comets, planets, and moons.

2023/11/09

© University of Bern, Photo: Peter Keresztes Schmidt

Instrument from the University of Bern flies to the Moon

Following the success of the Bern solar wind sail on the Apollo Moon missions of the U.S. space agency NASA in the 1960s, the Physics Institute at the University of Bern is to return to the Moon as early as 2027 with the LIMS mass spectrometer as part of the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.

2023/07/13

© Valentin Bickel

Robot Team to Explore the Moon

Swiss researchers are equipping legged robots with scientific instruments to search for minerals and resources on the Moon. One major strength of these robots is their ability to work as a team: even if one robot fails, the mission continues. In this UniAktuell article you will learn more about the participation of Valentin Bickel, Fellow at the Center for Space and Habitability (CSH), in the project and the ESA "Space Resources Challenge".

2023/06/08

© University of Bern, Photos: Thibaut Roger

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. The four mini-Neptunes are smaller and cooler, and more difficult to find than the so-called Hot Jupiter exoplanets which have been found in abundance. Two of the four resulting papers are led by researchers from the University of Bern and the University of Geneva, Dr. Solène Ulmer-Moll (BE/GE) and Dr. Hugh Osborn (BE), who are also members of the NCCR PlanetS.

2023/03/27

© ESA/NASA

The University of Bern is on board a mission to Jupiter

The European Space Agency ESA’s Juice space mission is scheduled to start its journey to Jupiter on April 13, 2023. Once arrived, one of the goals of Juice is to search for traces of life on three of Jupiter’s icy moons. The University of Bern is contributing the NIM mass spectrometer to the mission and is involved in two other instruments: the SWI Sub-millimeter Wave Instrument and the GALA Laser Altimeter.

2023/03/09

Artist’s impression of CHEOPS
© ESA / ATG medialab

CHEOPS mission extended

After more than three years in orbit, the mission of the CHEOPS space telescope has just been extended. Led by the University of Bern in collaboration with the University of Geneva, CHEOPS is a joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Switzerland. On March 7th, ESA’s Science Programme Committee has confirmed its continued operations to 2026 and an indicative extension to 2029, contingent upon ongoing commitments from national contributors and partners.

2023/02/14

© NCCR PlanetS, Illustration: Tobias Stierli

Four classes of planetary systems

Astronomers have long been aware that planetary systems are not necessarily structured like our solar system. Researchers from the Universities of Bern and Geneva, as well as from the National Centre of Competence in Research PlanetS, have now shown for the first time that there are in fact four types of planetary systems.

2023/01/23

© NASA/ESA/CSA/M. Zamani

James Webb Space Telescope identifies origins of icy building blocks of life

Interstellar molecular clouds are considered to be the birth sites of planetary systems. With the help of the James Webb Space Telescope, 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. The discovery provides astronomers with new insights into the icy components that could be incorporated into planets over time and eventually form the basis for life. CSH's Maria Drozdovskaya is co-author of the study.

2022

2022/11/30

© Martin Jutzi

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.

2022/09/26

© NASA/Johns Hopkins APL

Defending the Earth with Help from Bern

NASA's DART space probe is scheduled to collide with an asteroid at 1:14 a.m. on Tuesday, September 27, in order to deflect it from its orbit. Researchers from the University of Bern are also involved in this endeavor.

2022/09/22

© ESO/G. Hüdepohl

How global warming affects astronomical observations

Astronomical observations from ground-based telescopes are sensitive to local atmospheric conditions. Anthropogenic climate change will negatively affect some of these conditions at observation sites around the globe, as a team of researchers led by the University of Bern and the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS reports.

2022/09/12

© ESA/ATG medialab

A thousand days of CHEOPS

After a thousand days in orbit, the CHEOPS space telescope shows almost no signs of wear. Under these conditions, it could continue to reveal details of some of the most fascinating exoplanets for quite some time. CHEOPS is a joint mission by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Switzerland, under the aegis of the University of Bern in collaboration with the University of Geneva.

2022/09/07

© ESO/P. Horálek

Two new rocky worlds around an ultra-cool star

An international research team, with the participation of the University of Bern and the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS, discovered two "super-Earth" exoplanets. One is located at just the right distance from its star to potentially hold liquid water on its surface.

2022/08/25

© NASA/ESA/CSA/Joseph Olmsted

James Webb Space Telescope detects carbon dioxide in exoplanet atmosphere

The James Webb Space Telescope delivers a sensation right away with its first scientific result: for the first time, CO2 has been conclusively detected in the atmosphere of a planet outside the solar system. Researchers from the University of Bern, the University of Geneva and the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS are involved in the study.

2022/07/05

© University of Bern

Shedding light on comet Chury’s unexpected chemical complexity

A team of researchers led by the University of Bern has for the first time identified an unexpected richness of complex organic molecules at a comet. This was achieved thanks to the analysis of data collected during ESA’s Rosetta mission at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, also known as Chury. Delivered to the early Earth by impacting comets, these organics may have helped to kick-start carbon-based life as we know it.

2022/06/29

© NASA/Johns Hopkins APL

Bernese researchers simulate defense of the earth

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission is the world’s first full-scale planetary defense test against potential asteroid impacts on Earth. Researchers of the University of Bern and the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS now show that instead of leaving behind a relatively small crater, the impact of the DART spacecraft on its target could leave the asteroid near unrecognizable.

2022/06/27

© CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, Thibaut Roger/UniBE/UZH

Long-term liquid water also on non-Earth-like planets?

Liquid water is an important prerequisite for life to develop on a planet. As researchers from the University of Bern, the University of Zurich and the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS report in a new study, liquid water could also exist for billions of years on planets that are very different from Earth. This calls our currently Earth-centred idea of potentially habitable planets into question.

2022/06/09

© University of Bern

Ground-breaking number of brown dwarfs discovered

Brown dwarfs, mysterious objects that straddle the line between stars and planets, are essential to our understanding of both stellar and planetary populations. However, only 40 brown dwarfs could be imaged around stars in almost three decades of searches. An international team led by researchers from the Open University and the University of Bern directly imaged a remarkable four new brown dwarfs thanks to a new innovative search method.

2022/05/24

© University of Bern

The University of Bern flies to Jupiter

The JUICE space mission of the European Space Agency ESA is scheduled to fly to Jupiter in spring 2023 where it is to look for traces of life in three icy moons. The University of Bern is involved in this endeavor as well, amongst others with the NIM mass spectrometer, which is presented in a video.

2022/01/28

© Bibiana Prinoth

Extreme exoplanet has a complex and exotic atmosphere

An international team including researchers from the University of Bern and the University of Geneva as well as the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS analyzed the atmosphere of one of the most extreme known planets in great detail. The results from this hot, Jupiter-like planet that was first characterized with the help of the CHEOPS space telescope, may help astronomers understand the complexities of many other exoplanets – including Earth-like planets.

2022/01/11

© ESA

CHEOPS reveals a rugby ball-shaped exoplanet

With the help of the CHEOPS space telescope, an international team including researchers from the Universities of Bern and Geneva as well as the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS, was able to detect the deformation of an exoplanet for the first time. Due to strong tidal forces, the appearance of the planet WASP-103b resembles a rugby ball rather than a sphere.

2022/01/07

© Institute of Astronomy, UNAM / E. Cadena

Eccentric exoplanet discovered

Led by the University of Bern, an international research team has discovered a sub-Neptune exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf star. The discovery was also made thanks to observations performed by the SAINT-EX observatory in Mexico. SAINT-EX is run by a consortium including the Center for Space and Habitability (CSH) at the University of Bern and the National Center of Competence in Research NCCR PlanetS.

2021 - 2020

2020/12/16

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.

2019 - 2016

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.

2018/08/15

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.

2018/02/05

What the TRAPPIST-1 planets could look like

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.

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.

2017/02/22

Seven terrestrial exoplanets around a nearby star

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.

2016/09/30

Rosettas Landeplatz
© 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.