Four Swiss universities, including UNIGE, involved in a European Consortium for Research Infrastructures, as part of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory project

The governance board of the international Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) project, in which UNIGE is involved along with three other Swiss universities, and the representatives of the States Parties will hold a special meeting in Geneva from 13 to 15 June 2023, with a view to the structure becoming a European Consortium for Research Infrastructures (ERIC) by the end of the year.

The existence of cosmic rays bombarding the Earth has been known for over a century. But studying and determining the sources of these sporadic particles, which sometimes carry energies hundreds of times more intense than CERN's best accelerators, remains a major challenge for scientists.

The CTAO project aims to observe the sky with an unprecedented degree of sensitivity. The data will be combined with other observatories in space and on earth to explore the electromagnetic spectrum more comprehensively. This will enable us to understand the impact of particles in the evolution of cosmic systems and to gain a better understanding of the most extreme and unusual phenomena in the Universe.

The establishment of this observatory is the result of a worldwide effort, with more than 1,500 scientists and engineers from around 150 institutes in 25 countries involved in guiding the scientific objectives and designing the networks. The UNIGE is coordinating the activities of the Swiss institutions involved in this project - in addition to the UNIGE, the EPFL, the ETHZ and the UZH - and the laboratories of Professor Teresa Montaruli (DPNC/Faculty of Science), Professor Domenico Della Volpe (DPNC Department) and Dr Roland Walter (Astronomy Department), in particular, are active within this structure. CTAO is part of the Swiss roadmap for research infrastructures drawn up by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation.

As president of the CTAO-CH consortium, Professor Montaruli has been awarded three grants totalling CHF 3,205,000, including CHF 1,019,000 for projects relating to the four Large Size Telescopes and CHF 2,186,000 for contributions to the data processing and storage system, as well as contributions to the CTAO data acquisition network management system.

To find out more about the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory and Switzerland's involvement