Nobel Prize in Physics 2019 | 15 Oct 2019
The Nobel Prize for Physics has been awarded to James Peebles for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology, and Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for discovering an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star.
- James Peebles: Theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology
- Peebles developed a theoretical framework about the cosmos and its billions of galaxies and galaxy clusters since the mid-1960s.
- The importance of the cosmic radiation during birth of the Big Bang was realized by him.
- James Peebles also interpreted traces from the infancy of the universe and discovered new physical processes.
- The results showed a universe whose just five percent of content is known, the matter which constitutes stars, planets, trees – and us. The rest, 95 per cent, is unknown dark matter and dark energy.
- This is a mystery and a challenge to modern physics.
- Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz : Discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star.
- It was the first discovery of an exoplanet (a planet outside our solar system, orbiting a solar-type star in our home galaxy, the Milky Way).
- The discovery of exoplanet 51 Pegasi b, started a “revolution in astronomy”.
- 51 Pegasi b is a gaseous ball comparable with Jupiter.
- Ever since 4,000 exoplanets have been found in the Milky Way Galaxy.