(from left to right) David Ehrenreich (CHEOPS Consortium Mission Scientist, University of Geneva), Willy Benz (Principal Investigator of the CHEOPS mission and Director of the National Centre of Competence in Research PlanetS, University of Bern), Christian Leumann (Rector of the University of Bern), Yves Flückiger (Rector of the University of Geneva), Renato Krpoun (Head of Swiss Space Office of the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation SERI), Kate Isaak (CHEOPS Project Scientist, European Space Agency ESA). © University of Bern
The space telescope CHEOPS is scheduled to begin its journey into space on Tuesday, December 17th on board a Soyuz rocket from the European Space Agency (ESA) in Kourou, French Guiana. CHEOPS is a joint mission of ESA and Switzerland, led by the University of Bern, in collaboration with the University of Geneva. CHEOPS (short for CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite) consists of a space telescope developed and assembled by the University of Bern, in collaboration with the University of Geneva (UNIGE), and a satellite platform that carries the telescope and allows the control of the satellite from the ground. CHEOPS, which will be operated by the University of Geneva, is the first mission jointly run by Switzerland and ESA. The mission serves to study exoplanets by observing the stars around which the planets orbit. CHEOPS will measure the minuscule changes in brightness which occur when a planet passes in front of its host star. These changes being proportional to the surface of the transiting planet, CHEOPS will allow to measure the size of the planets.
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