Canadian-American cosmologist James Peebles and Swiss scientists Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz won the 2019 Nobel Prize for Physics announced on October 8, 2019 for shedding light on the evolution of the universe and discovering planets orbiting distant suns.
According to the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded ”for contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the universe and Earth’s place in the cosmos”, with one half to James Peebles “for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology” and the other half jointly to Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz “for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star.”
About James Peebles contribution
- As per the Academy, James Peebles’ insights into physical cosmology have enriched the entire field of research and laid a foundation for the transformation of cosmology over the last fifty years, from speculation to science.
- His theoretical framework, developed since the mid-1960s, is the basis of our contemporary ideas about the universe.
About Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz discovery
- In October 1995, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz announced the first discovery of a planet outside our solar system, an exoplanet, orbiting a solar-type star in our home galaxy, the Milky Way.
- At the Haute-Provence Observatory in southern France, using custom-made instruments, they were able to see planet 51 Pegasi b, a gaseous ball comparable with the solar system’s biggest gas giant, Jupiter.
- This discovery started a revolution in astronomy and over 4,000 exoplanets have since been found in the Milky Way.
Some facts about Nobel Prize for Physics
- 113 Nobel Prizes in Physics have been awarded between 1901 and 2019.
- 47 Physics Prizes have been given to one Laureate only.
- 3 women have been awarded the Physics Prize so far: Marie Curie in 1903, Maria Goeppert-Mayer in 1963 and Donna Strickland in 2018.
- 1 person, John Bardeen, has been awarded the Physics Prize twice.
- 25 years was the age of the youngest Physics Laureate ever, Lawrence Bragg, when he was awarded the 1915 Physics Prize together with his father.
- 96 years is the age of this year’s Physics Laureate Arthur Ashkin, the oldest Laureate ever.
