wire - news in brief

The planned space missions to search for remote life will provide valuable insights even if they do not find any evidence of life, says astrophysicist Daniel Angerhausen.

By combining the four giant telescopes of the Very Large Telescope, an international team has observed the exoplanet WASP-121b with unprecedented precision, revealing one of the most extreme climates in the Galaxy. WASP-121b is one of the most studied exoplanets. Known for its extreme conditions-such as clouds of metal vapor-it belongs to the category of ultra-hot Jupiters.

The University of Geneva coordinates the participation of Swiss institutions in the CTAO project, which addresses the most fascinating questions of high-energy astrophysics.

Earth-observation satellites deliver data for a wealth of applications - from monitoring climate change and documenting war crimes to planning disaster relief and assessing snow depth.

Earth-observation satellites deliver data for a wealth of applications - from monitoring climate change and documenting war crimes to planning disaster relief and assessing snow depth.

NASA's Europa Clipper was launched on October 14, 2024, on its mission to conduct a detailed study of Jupiter's moon Europa.

The UZH Space Hub leverages its strong interdisciplinary research and international network to help advance the fields of remote sensing, astrophysics, space life sciences and autonomous drone navigation.

Starting today, the Earth will be passing through a meteor shower. But in astronomy, the human eye is very much a limited tool. But increasingly powerful instruments are allowing us to peer ever deeper into the cosmos and ever further back in time, shedding new light on the origins of the universe. Today, scientists are able to observe an exoplanet orbiting its star, an individual galaxy and even the entire universe.

EPFL officially joined the Multi Spectroscopic Telescope (MUST) project, led by China's Tsinghua University, as a founding member.

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

The European Space Agency's most expensive and complex mission, the LISA space antenna, has reached a major milestone: it has passed the stage of intensive testing by experts in the Mission Adoption Review process - a significant step for the LISA consortium.

With its secretariat hosted at EPFL, the Square Kilometer Array Switzerland (SKACH) consortium is celebrating two years' membership of a global project to develop the largest scientific facility ever built by humankind.

Craig Walton is the first NOMIS Fellow at the Centre for Origin and Prevalence of Life at ETH Zurich.

Sascha Quanz searches for traces of life on extrasolar planets orbiting alien stars. The astrophysicist believes that gaining an understanding of life and its origin on Earth is an important stepping stone. Our Earth was formed around 4.5 billion years ago, and fossil evidence of life can be found in rocks that are over 3.5 billion years old.

The ARRAKHIS consortium, for which EPFL has the science lead, has just successfully passed the mission definition review of the project, a very important first milestone towards full completion of the mission preparation.

SNSF Ambizione grants are aimed at early-career postdoctoral researchers who wish to conduct their first independent project in Switzerland.

Quantum mechanics describes the forces that hold the world together on the smallest scale. The theory of relativity explains the world at the cosmic level. The two seem incompatible - and a unifying theory is nowhere in sight. Without quantum mechanics, many of the technologies that we take for granted would be inconceivable.

Optical data communications lasers can transmit several tens of terabits per second, despite a huge amount of disruptive air turbulence. scientists and their European partners demonstrated this capacity with lasers between the mountain peak, Jungfraujoch, and the city of Bern in Switzerland. This will soon eliminate the necessity of expensive deep-sea cables.

Empa research helps Swiss watches to glow in the dark: The luminescent material Swiss Super-LumiNova, which was refined at Empa, now adorns the hands and dials of a number of wristwatches, including the MoonSwatch collection from Swatch and Omega.

JUICE, the European spacecraft that is scheduled to launch later today, will explore Jupiter and its icy moons. Some of the components on board have been manufactured at Empa using a specially developed soldering process. Vibrations, vacuum, radiation and extreme temperature fluctuations: Scientific instruments intended for spacecraft must be able to withstand harsh conditions for years and still function with the utmost precision and reliability.

The JUICE mission of the European Space Agency ESA, which aims to explore the planet Jupiter and its three largest moons, is all set to go. The space probe will carry on board the high-tech detector RADEM developed at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI. Among other things, this will provide information about the complex radiation conditions and the highly dynamic magnetic environment of the Jupiter system.

The European Space Agency ESA-s Juice space mission is scheduled to start its journey to Jupiter on April 13, 2023.

The Astrophysical Spectropolarimetry research project, led by Renzo Ramelli of the USI-affiliated Istituto ricerche solari Aldo e Cele Daccò (IRSOL), has been approved by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). The project aims to study the evolution and structure of the solar magnetic field, focusing on the formation of solar flares using modern equipment and innovative observation techniques.

On January 31, the EPFL Spacecraft Team's onboard computer Bunny was launched in California, USA, hosted on a D'Orbit spacecraft as part of Starlink's 2-6 mission.

Waste causes problems not only on Earth, but also in space. A research team from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts is currently developing a space debris detector. This can autonomously control satellites that are to clean up space in the future. Above our heads, there is a huge mess: In low-Earth orbits - about 800 km above the Earth - there are currently around 5,500 active and defective satellites orbiting.

The lander's team has tried to contact the spacecraft twice without response, leading them to conclude it has run out of energy. NASA's InSight mission has ended after four years of collecting unique science on Mars.

Nobel laureate and astrophysicist Didier Queloz and earth scientist Cara Magnabosco on the origin of life on Earth, complex life beyond our planet, and the inevitable end of every life. You're both tackling the big questions about the universe. Doesn't it sometimes make you feel small and insignificant? Didier Queloz: Yes, it does indeed.

Daniel Angerhausen believes that fundamental research is essential, especially in the current crisis.