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The METIS is the first instrument of the Extremely Large Telescope to pass its final design review!

The Exoplanets and Habitability Group will be involved in four projects that have been awarded with observation time in the third cycle of proposal calls using the Mid InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) onboard the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), three of them as Principal Investigator. The projects will result in an improved understanding of the characteristics and formation of cold companions.

Forget UFOs and alien abductions, here's how scientists are really looking for life on other worlds.

Physicists at ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich wanted to know whether the planned LIFE space mission could really detect traces of life on other planets. Yes, it can. The researchers reached this conclusion with the help of observations of our own planet.

This study aims to identify exemplary science cases for observing N2O, CH3Cl, and CH3Br in exoplanet atmospheres at abundances consistent with biogenic production using a space-based mid-infrared nulling interferometric observatory, such as the LIFE (Large Interferometer For Exoplanets) mission concept.

The ETH-led LIFE space mission aims at the detection and atmospheric characterization of small, temperate exoplanets, to asses if some of them show signs of biological activity, i.e. life outside our solar system.

At its meeting of 6 and 7 December 2023 and upon application of Joël Mesot, President of ETH Zurich, the ETH Board appointed twelve professors and awarded the title "Professor of Practice" once. 

The project „Quantifying the prospects for characterizing habitable and inhabited terrestrial exoplanets with future observations“ is a joint effort between the research groups of Derek Vance (Institute for Geochemistry and Petrology) and Sascha Quanz (Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics) and will be financially supported by the COPL, Centre for Origin and Prevalence of Life.

On June 1^st the facility for the METIS Cryostat integration was handed over.

"Characterizing Substellar Atmospheres in the Era of JWST", Brittany Miles

The Search for Habitable and Inhabited Worlds in our Galaxy, Ravi Kopparapu

With a constellation of five satellites, the international LIFE initiative led by ETH Zurich hopes to one day detect traces of life on exoplanets. A laboratory experiment in the Department of Physics is now set to demonstrate the planned measurement method.

In a recently published study, we investigated how well the LIFE telescope could characterize a cloudy Venus-like exoplanet.

A bit more than 3 years after the Preliminary Design Review (PDR), it was time for the METIS team to meet ESO review team in the frame of the instrument Final Design Review (FDR) at the ESO Headquarters in Garching (D).

Daniel Angerhausen ist überzeugt, dass Grundlagenforschung gerade in der aktuellen Krise unverzichtbar ist. Trotzdem fragt er sich, ob man die Idee der Nachhaltigkeit nicht auch in die unendlichen Weiten des Alls ausdehnen sollte.

This work, led by Polychronis Patapis, was accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics.