Solar Orbiter blasts off with Swiss telescope on board
The European-American Solar Orbiter probe took off from Florida on Sunday night with a Swiss X-ray telescope on board to study the Sun close up.
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The European Space Agency (ESA) probe successfully launched at 11.03pm (local time, Sunday/5.03am Monday, Swiss time) from Cape Canaveral in Florida. It was launched aboard an American rocket as part of a partnership with NASA.
Ten scientific instruments (209 kilos of payload) are packed on the mission, which costs €1.5 billion (CHF1.6 billion). Over the next decade it will study particle-laden storms on the Sun that can cause breakdowns of technological infrastructure on Earth.
After passing through the orbit of Venus and then Mercury, the satellite, whose maximum speed will reach 245,000 km/h, will travel as close as 42 million kilometres from the Sun, or less than a third of the distance between the Sun and Earth.
STIX will analyse high-energy X-rays, which are only produced at very high temperatures. By combining STIX’s results with those of the other instruments, scientists hope to get a very accurate picture of the enormous energy released by the Sun.
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Swiss-developed exoplanet telescope launched into space
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A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying the CHEOPS (Characterising ExOPlanets Satellite) telescope blasted off from Kourou, French Guiana.
Macron will attend Swiss summit on Ukraine, says Zelensky
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French President Emmanuel Macron will attend the peace conference on Ukraine at the Swiss Bürgenstock resort next month, according to Volodymyr Zelensky.
Top politician tells ‘corrupt’ Eurovision to stay away from Bern
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A social media post by the president of Bern’s cantonal government critical of the Eurovision Song Contest has created waves and will be discussed in the cantonal parliament.
Swiss centre records over 200 victims of human trafficking
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Last year 317 people took part in a protection programme run by the Specialist Unit for Trafficking in Women and Women’s Migration (FIZ) in German-speaking Switzerland.
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The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and partners are opening a field hospital in southern Gaza on Tuesday.
Lack of smartphone sustainability in Switzerland hits environment
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Almost half of all Swiss citizens hang on to their old smartphones, tablets and laptops, according to the Federal Statistical Office.
Police clear out pro-Palestinian students protesting in Geneva
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The police intervened early on Tuesday to dislodge pro-Palestinian students who had been occupying the University of Geneva for almost a week.
New gel developed in Zurich renders alcohol harmless
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A newly developed gel composed of whey proteins breaks down alcohol in the body and could reduce its harmful and intoxicating effects in humans.
Pro-Palestine protests extend to Basel and Fribourg universities
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Demonstrators called for an academic boycott of all Israeli institutions and disassociation with Chaim Weizmann, the first Israeli president.
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Swiss start-up embarks on space cleaning mission
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Cleaning up space is the mission of a new Swiss start-up, ClearSpace, which will capitalise on technology developed by engineers at the EPFL.
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The mission of the gift box-sized device is to map airglow, the faint bands of green and mauve light caused when the sun’s high-energy radiation collides with atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere. “Mission accomplished,” said an emotional Muriel Noca, project coordinator at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). “I can’t believe…
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A nanosatellite developed by Swiss start-up Astrocast was launched into space Monday at a SpaceX rocket launch in California.
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