ERC and SNSF Starting Grant applications The CSH welcomes ERC and SNSF Starting Grant applications. Successful candidates will be eligible to apply for extra funding from the CSH (up to 200'000 CHF) to support interdisciplinary research.
Congratulations to Christopher Broeg, new PI of CHEOPS For more than five years, the Bernese CHEOPS telescope has been providing high-precision data on exoplanets. At the beginning of 2025, Christopher Broeg took over the leadership of the space mission from Willy Benz. Now the two have met for a conversation.
Bernese liftoff for EXPO 2025 OSAKA ! The University of Bern is part of the Swiss Pavilion at EXPO 2025 OSAKA with instruments built for the ESA/JAXA space missions Juice and Comet Interceptor.
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 & many of the marsquakes recorded by the @NASAInSight lander are caused by meteoroid impacts
International space event at the Spanish Residence Members of the CHEOPS team and Nicolas Thomas were invited to an international lunch at the Spanish Residence on 5 February 2025. Many thanks to the Embassy of Spain and their Ambassador Celsa Nuño for the opportunity to give an insight into the CHEOPS mission as well as space instrumentation programmes for remote sensing at the University of Bern to very interested guests.
rockfall locations on Mars A team led 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.
Unveiling the birth of planets On 11th of December 2024, Dr. Yuhito Shibaike and Prof. Audrey Vorburger gave a public talk attended by 150 persons about Japanese bernese collaborations in space research. The event took place in the 160th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between Japan and Switzerland and the guests were welcomed by Mr Fujiyama, Ambassador of Japan to Switzerland.
Congratulations to Dr. Erik Meier Valdés ! Erik successfully defended his PhD thesis on 24 September 2024. He is now moving to Oxford to pursue his work on rocky exoplanets with a SNF Postdoc Mobility grant. The CSH and especially the group "Exoplanets and Origins of Life" congratulates him for this great achievement.
Congratulations to Dr. Jeanne Davoult ! Jeanne successfully defended her PhD thesis on 28 November 2024. She is now moving to Berlin to pursue her work on exoplanet populations at DLR (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft—und Raumfahrt). Congratulations from all the members of the CSH!
À la recherche de mondes habitables dans notre système solaire On 5th of November 2024 Athena Coustenis, directrice de recherche au Laboratoire de Recherches Spatiales et d’Instrumentation en Astrophysique (LESIA), was at the Center for Space and Habitability for a public talk and meeting with researchers.
NASA's JWST Cracks Case of Inflated Exoplanet WASP 107 2 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.
Sometimes, salt deposits on Mars just seem to smile back at you Last week, a new paper published in Nature’s Scientific Data journal revealed never-seen-before data that helps us better understand the distribution of water in ancient Mars. CSH fellow Valentin Bickel is leading this study.
Congratulation Willy Benz, Professor Emeritus of Astrophysics at the University of Bern and former Director of the NCCR PlanetS, was officially elected President of the International Astronomical Union IAU yesterday. Over the next three years, Willy Benz will head the world's largest organisation of astronomers. He will be supported by the Nobel Prize winner Brian Schmidt as President-Elect. We congratulate Willy Benz and Brian Schmidt on their election!
New partnership with NASA A new network of Swiss research institutions teams up with NASA to accelerate the exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Valentin Bickel, planetary scientist at the Center for Space and Habitability (CSH), is the principal investigator of the Swiss research network CHEESE.
High-performance spectrograph 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 Bern.
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 mountains 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. Understanding where water can be found, and how it is transported, is relevant for future Mars missions and possible human exploration.
Hints of a possible atmosphere around a rocky exoplanet Researchers using NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope may have detected an atmosphere surrounding 55 Cancri e, a rocky exoplanet 41 light-years from Earth. This is the best evidence to date for a rocky planet atmosphere outside our solar system. Brice-Olivier Demory, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Bern and member of the the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS, was part of the international research team that just published the results in Nature.
DART impact might have reshaped Hera's target asteroid “The code runs on a High Performance Computing Cluster here at the University,” explains Sabina Raducan leading the new impact simulation study reported in Nature Astronomy and co-chair of the Hera Impact Physics Working Group.
CSH at Physics Olympiad camp CSH and NCCR PlanetS visited the Physics Olympiad camp on November 2023. 100 Highschool students experienced and learned some fascinating facts about gravity, observation and space missions.
Moon rocks with unique dust found “Modern data processing methods allow us to gain completely new insights”, says Valentin Bickel, CSH Fellow who is a co-author of the study about Moon rocks🌔
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.
Robot Team to Explore the Moon! 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 ESA "Space Resources Challenge".
Exocast - The exoplanet podcast The monthly podcast about all things exoplanetary. An outreach project by three exoplanet astronomers, among them Dr Hugh Osborn, CHESS fellow at the University of Bern and MIT.
Space Resources Challenge A Swiss consortium comprising Dr Valentin Bickel, CSH Fellow, is the winner of the robotic “Space Resources Challenge”. Congratulations Valentin!
CHEOPS extension After more than three years in orbit, the mission of the CHEOPS space telescope has been extended. Image: Artist’s impression of CHEOPS © ESA / ATG medialab
Bern’s Interstellar Head Chef Maria Drozdovskaya searches for recipes every day. But not for balanced main courses or fine desserts, but for comets, stars, and planets. More on her research in this UniAktuell Article.
ESA’s Juice mission: From vision to mission At the University of Bern, there are some people who have been involved with Juice from the very beginning. One of them is Yann Alibert. He was involved in a proposal to ESA for a space mission to explore the Jupiter system. More in the UniAktuell series "The people behind Juice"
Congratulations to Beatrice! Beatrice Kulterer defended successfully her PhD the 17/02/23 - Congratulations!
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.
Congratulations to Andrea! Andrea Guzman Mesa defended successfully her PhD the 31/01/23 - Congratulations!
PhD defense Beatrice Kulterer's PhD defense will take place on the 17/02/23 at 2pm in B5 (ExWi building, Sidlerstrasse 5). The title of the thesis is 'Characterizing Chemical Complexity during the Early Stages of Star Formation'.
Massive Exoplanet MEME Exhibition The MEME welcomes anyone with an interest in astrophysics and aims to approach the topic with a sense of humor. Co-curated by Marit Mol Lous, PhD assistent at the University of Bern and member of the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS
PhD defense Andrea Guzman Mesa's PhD defense will take place on the 31/01/23 at 9:30am in B7 (ExWi building, Sidlerstrasse 5). The title of the thesis is 'The diversity of sub-neptune planets'.
ERC Consolidator grant Brice-Olivier Demory got awarded a Consolidator grant from the European Research Council (ERC). Because Switzerland is not associated to Horizon Europe for this call, the research project will be funded by the Swiss 'State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).
CSH Interaction Mechanisms & Schedule of Events Days, times and venues of colloquium, seminars, lectures, group meetings, etc.
CSH Visitor's Wiki We use the CSH Wiki to coordinate the CSH Visitor's Program, which hosts seminar and colloquium speakers as well as research visitors.
CSH & Bernoulli Fellowships Designed to match the NASA Hubble Fellowships in duration (3 years) and research support, the CSH Fellowships aim to attract world-class postdoctoral researchers to the University of Bern to develop their independent research portfolios. The Bernoulli Fellowships operate in partnership with Oxford University: Bernoulli Fellows spend 2 years each at the CSH and Oxford for a term of 4 years in total.
Public Outreach & Education The Center for Space and Habitability (CSH) offers outreach events and activities for the public.
CSH Colloquium & Seminar Series The CSH hosts the Colloquium and Seminar Series for international and local researchers to discuss cutting-edge research at the University of Bern.
CSH Science & Religion Forum An annual forum to stimulate constructive discussion between science, philosophy and religion.
CSH Distinguished Lectures The CSH Distinguished Lecture Series brings eminent researchers of international standing to the University of Bern to deliver three lectures: a general talk for physicists, one for specialists and one for the public. Nominations for CSH Distinguished Lecturers may be made directly to the CSH Director.
Awards & Prizes by CSH Researchers Major international and national awards and prizes by CSH researchers.
SAINT-EX Telescope Led by SNF Professor Brice-Olivier Demory, the CSH is proud to be the lead institution on the SAINT-EX telescope to detect terrestrial exoplanets orbiting red dwarf stars.
Stellarium Gornergrat The outreach and education telescope operated by the CSH and observatory manager Dr. Timm Riesen.
Mileva Maric Scheme The Mileva Maric Scheme is a program to help postdoctoral researchers whose careers were interrupted (e.g. by parenthood). It is named after the former wife of Einstein and recognises the role of invisible women in scientific history.
Infographics The CSH collaborates with professional graphics designer Jenny Leibundgut to create infographics for the scientific community and public.
