Cosmos club

Since the discovery of the first exoplanet in 1995 by Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, humanity has known that our Solar System is not unique. The Swiss space mission CHEOPS (CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite), to be launched in 2019, is dedicated to this task. Unlike telescopes that hunt for new planets, CHEOPS focuses on the precise characterization of known exoplanets, measuring their size and density to deduce their composition: are they gaseous like Jupiter, rocky like Earth, or covered in oceans?Using the most powerful telescopes on the ground or in space, it's possible to go even further, even back to the weather on certain planets, on which it could be raining iron (in the evening!)This general public conference will take you to extraordinary worlds orbiting other stars, as well as behind the scenes of the CHEOPS mission. You'll discover how CHEOPS observes planetary transits to unlock the secrets of these new worlds. What are the challenges of exoplanetary exploration? How do these discoveries bring us closer to answering the ultimate question: are we alone in the Universe? A talk by David Ehrenreich, Associate Professor at the University of GenevaFree admission

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