{"id":13632,"date":"2020-08-21T10:03:07","date_gmt":"2020-08-21T08:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/the-most-sensitive-instrument-in-the-search-for-life-in-space-comes-from-bern\/"},"modified":"2023-07-04T13:40:04","modified_gmt":"2023-07-04T11:40:04","slug":"the-most-sensitive-instrument-in-the-search-for-life-in-space-comes-from-bern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-most-sensitive-instrument-in-the-search-for-life-in-space-comes-from-bern\/","title":{"rendered":"The most sensitive instrument in the search for life in space comes from Bern"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>Are we alone in the universe? The answer to one of humanity\u2019s most fundamental questions may come from ORIGIN, a highly sensitive mass spectrometer developed by researchers at the University of Bern.<\/h4>\n<p>Finding evidence of past or present life beyond the Earth is of great scientific importance for a better understanding of how life emerged and evolved in the universe. For the past four decades, space exploration missions have searched for traces of life in our solar system using highly specialized instruments installed on landing platforms and rovers.<\/p>\n<p>An international group of researchers led by Andreas Riedo and Niels Ligterink at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unibe.ch\/index_eng.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">University of Bern<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unibe.ch\/news\/media_news\/media_relations_e\/media_releases\/2020\/media_releases_2020\/the_most_sensitive_instrument_in_the_search_for_life_in_space_comes_from_bern\/index_eng.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">have now developed ORIGIN<\/a>, a mass spectrometer able to detect and identify the tiniest fragments of life. The new instruments \u2013 described in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41598-020-66240-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">article<\/a> recently published on <em>Nature Scientific Reports<\/em> \u2013 outperforms existing space instruments in terms of measurement sensitivity. Various international space agencies have already expressed great interest in ORIGIN for future missions. NASA has invited the Swiss researchers to participate in a test mission in the Arctic.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Ideal conditions for space research<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>With its long-standing history of pioneering space research, Bern offers optimal conditions for building state-of-the-art space instruments. Since the participation of the University of Bern in the first Apollo mission on the moon in 1969 with the solar wind experiment, numerous instruments have been built in Bern for the large space agencies\u2019 space missions, such as NASA, ESA or Roscosmos. Scientists also benefit greatly from the unique interdisciplinary environment at the University of Bern, where researchers specialized in geology, chemistry, mass spectrometry, or laser physics work side by side with qualified engineers. In addition, the minimal red tape compared to other universities allows for a more effective concentration on science.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Are we alone in the universe? The answer to one of humanity\u2019s most fundamental questions may come from ORIGIN, a highly sensitive mass spectrometer developed by researchers at the University of Bern. Finding evidence of past or present life beyond the Earth is of great scientific importance for a better understanding of how life emerged [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[835],"tags":[907,886,897],"class_list":["post-13632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-precision-en","tag-engineering","tag-rd","tag-space"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The most sensitive instrument in the search for life in space comes from Bern - Greater Geneva Bern area<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/en\/the-most-sensitive-instrument-in-the-search-for-life-in-space-comes-from-bern\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The most sensitive instrument in the search for life in space comes from Bern - Greater Geneva Bern area\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Are we alone in the universe? The answer to one of humanity\u2019s most fundamental questions may come from ORIGIN, a highly sensitive mass spectrometer developed by researchers at the University of Bern. Finding evidence of past or present life beyond the Earth is of great scientific importance for a better understanding of how life emerged [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/en\/the-most-sensitive-instrument-in-the-search-for-life-in-space-comes-from-bern\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Greater Geneva Bern area\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-08-21T08:03:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-07-04T11:40:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/app\/uploads\/2023\/06\/20200819_MedienmitteilungUniBE_ORIGIN_2B_ORIGIN_TestsystemUniBE_VeraKnoepfel-3.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"945\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"430\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mathieu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"mathieu\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/en\/the-most-sensitive-instrument-in-the-search-for-life-in-space-comes-from-bern\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/en\/the-most-sensitive-instrument-in-the-search-for-life-in-space-comes-from-bern\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"mathieu\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/de091cdfd7d8bce46f9b8b1cf9d868ab\"},\"headline\":\"The most sensitive instrument in the search for life in space comes from Bern\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-21T08:03:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-04T11:40:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/en\/the-most-sensitive-instrument-in-the-search-for-life-in-space-comes-from-bern\/\"},\"wordCount\":302,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/en\/the-most-sensitive-instrument-in-the-search-for-life-in-space-comes-from-bern\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/app\/uploads\/2023\/06\/20200819_MedienmitteilungUniBE_ORIGIN_2B_ORIGIN_TestsystemUniBE_VeraKnoepfel-3.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Engineering\",\"R&amp;D\",\"Space\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Precision\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/en\/the-most-sensitive-instrument-in-the-search-for-life-in-space-comes-from-bern\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/en\/the-most-sensitive-instrument-in-the-search-for-life-in-space-comes-from-bern\/\",\"name\":\"The most sensitive instrument in the search for life in space comes from Bern - 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