Annual Report 2019

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Discovering new worlds

The University of Bern causes a stir in 2019 both in the field of particle physics and space exploration. On December 18, the CHEOPS space telescope from Bern successfully embarks on its journey into space.

Key Area

Matter and the universe

The university conducts cutting-edge research in theoretical and empirical particle physics, the origin of life as well as in the field of the formation and development of planets and their capability of sustaining life. In 2019, the University of Bern shows Switzerland and the world what it can do and its achievements in these areas:

Researchers from the University of Bern discover rare-Earth metals in the atmosphere of an exoplanet for the first time in 2019.
The Mars camera CaSSIS, built in Bern, supplies the world with spectacular, high-resolution color images of the surface of Mars.
The American research center Fermilab signs an agreement with the University of Bern on neutrino research – the first time with a Swiss university.
In the summer, the university organizes a science festival, “Bern in Space”, and celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing, in which the University of Bern’s solar wind sail played a major role, with the residents.

And last, but not least, there are celebrations for the successful start of the CHEOPS space telescope which from now on will be looking for a “twin Earth” outside our solar system.

Further stories

Fermilab

Researching with ghost particles

In September 2019, the American research center Fermilab and the University of Bern sign an agreement governing their collaboration on neutrino experiments. Neutrino experiments could one day throw light on the early development of our universe.

CaSSIS

Mars camera made in Bern

The Mars camera CaSSIS delivers high-resolution color images of the surface of Mars, causing something of a stir globally in 2019. The camera system developed at the University of Bern started its journey to Mars in 2016 on board the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft.

Exoplanet KELT-9b

An extreme gas giant

KELT-9b is the hottest exoplanet known to date. In spring 2019, researchers from the Universities of Bern and Geneva can prove there are traces of vaporized sodium, magnesium, chromium and the rare-Earth metals scandium and yttrium in the atmosphere of KELT-9b.

“Bern in space”

Mission accomplished

On July 21, 1969, astronaut Buzz Aldrin planted the University of Bern’s solar wind sail in the ground on the moon, even before doing the same with the American flag. Reason enough for the University of Bern to celebrate this anniversary in style: With midsummer temperatures, “Bern in Space” was a hit with events on Bern’s Federal Square, in the Kursaal Congress Center, at the University of Bern and at around 20 partner organizations.

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