D-PHYS News

Researchers from the Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics at ETH Zurich and the Department of Astrophysics at the University of Zurich asked if the potential future LIFE space mission could detect evidence of a habitable and inhabited Earth – and the answer is affirmative.

With the help of the James Webb Space Telescope, a team of researchers including members from the Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics at ETH Zurich measured ammonia in the atmosphere of a cold brown dwarf, showing that the isotopic abundance of ammonia can be used to study how giant gas planets form.

An ambitious space mission could open the way to a better understanding of our heliosphere and of cosmic dust.

Tobias Donner, Senior Scientist and lecturer in the Quantum Optics Group at the Institute for Quantum Electronics, has received a SERI-financed ERC Consolidator Grant. He plans to use the funding to explore the fundamental principles behind the interaction between quantum many-body systems and light.

In 2022, the Swiss team won the World Physics Championship, the International Young Physicists' Tournament (IYPT). Singapore and Poland came second and third.

Researchers of the ETH Zurich and the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS have closely analysed the characteristics of cosmic dust based on laboratory experiments and measurement data collected by space missions. Their results reveal fundamental gaps in the knowledge about this material that is vital for our understanding of galaxies and planetary systems.

Letting your curiosity run free, asking a thousand questions and learning something new. On 17 June 2022, the Department of Physics at ETH Zurich welcomed several thousand guests at the summer festival of science on the Hönggerberg campus, the Night of Physics 2022.

What new telescopes are needed for this? In recent years, astronomers have discovered thousands of planets outside our solar system – so-called exoplanets. They orbit stars other than our sun. Some of them could offer conditions that make life possible.

We do not yet know whether the Sun-like stars closest to us, the α Centauri A/B binary, harbour an Earth-like planet. However, thanks to new modelling work, we now have a good sense of what such a planet, should it exist, would look like and how it might have evolved.

An international team of researchers with participation of the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS, ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich has succeeded in capturing an image of a very special planet. No known planet orbits a hotter or more massive star system. Some astronomers even considered it impossible for planets to exist in such an environment.

In 2021, ESA selected three themes from a hundred proposals for its largest science missions, “Voyage 2050”. The National Centre of Competence in Research, or NCCR, “PlanetS” with its partner institutions ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich proposed two of the three chosen topics. The NCCR “PlanetS” is led by the two home institutions, the University of Bern and the University of Geneva.

We are delighted to announce that this year's Christophe Plantin Prize has been awarded to Dr. Veerle Sterken for her pioneering research into interstellar dust in the solar system.

At its meeting of 9 and 10 December 2020 and upon application of Joël Mesot, President of ETH Zurich, the ETH Board appointed 14 professors, among them Rachel Grange as Associate Professor of Photonics and Judit Szulágyi as Assistant Professor of Computational Astrophysics at the Departement of Physics.

Mid-infrared imaging observations of PDS 70 b, an exoplanet that is still in the process of formation, provide unique insight into its atmospheric properties and the mechanisms by which planets emerge from a circumstellar disk of gas and dust.

ETH has once again been highly successful in the awarding of this year’s ERC Starting Grants for young researchers, with the European Research Council (ERC) approving a total of CHF 21.4 million in funding for 12 ETH project submissions, among them those of physicists Yiwen Chu and Judit Szulágyi.

In 2019, the Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) telescopes — to which ETH physicists have made substantial contributions — detected the first Gamma Ray Burst at very high energies. With further analyses of those data, the MAGIC scientists now confirmed that the speed of light is constant in vacuum, and not dependent on energy. So, like many other tests, GRB data also corroborate Einstein’s theory of General Relativity. 

METIS, the powerful imager and spectrograph for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), has passed its Preliminary Design Review. ETH researchers have leading roles in the project and provide a major hardware contribution.

Last Sunday night, the Solar Orbiter satellite has been launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, with the mission of capturing unprecedented images of the Sun and providing novel insight into its behaviour. ETH physics professor Louise Harra has been involved over two decades throughout all stages of the project.

Four researchers from ETH Zurich have successfully applied for ERC Consolidator Grants worth EUR 2 million, among them physics professor Sebastiano Cantalupo.

The observation of a gamma-ray burst by the Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) telescopes — an international collaboration in which ETH physicists have a leading role — reveals the highest-energy photons released by such violent explosions reported to date.  

Every year, the Association of Students at ETH Zurich (VSETH) honours on ETH Day lecturers who have provided exceptional teaching with the "Golden Owl". For courses in the Departments of Physics, the award goes this year to Sascha Quanz.

The days when the harmful effects of CFCs made daily headlines have passed. But how is the ozone layer doing today? On Tuesday, 29 October, five experts – among them ETH physics professor Louise Harra – will discuss how much under stress our ozone layer is in times of climate change and the significance of these processes for all of us.

On the recommendation of ETH President Joël Mesot, the ETH Board appointed nine new ETH professors, among them astrophysicist Sascha Quanz, currently Senior Scientist at the Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics, who becomes Associate Professor of Exoplanets and Habitability. 

On the occasion of its "R Aquarii Week", the European Southern Observatory (ESO) shows the sharpest image of the symbiotic binary star ever taken. It was recorded by a team around ETH physicist Hans Martin Schmid.  

The Laboratory for Astronomical Instrumentation at ETH Zurich has shipped its first cryogenic wheels that were developed for the new infrared instrument ERIS on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). These mechanisms will hold various filters and masks that provide unique capabilities for direct imaging and characterization of exoplanets.

Fundamental questions can usually be solved better in cooperation between different disciplines than from a single perspective. Especially when a problem has remained unsolved for decades, despite intensive research: What is dark matter and does it even exist?