Nobel Prize for Physics goes to scientists who ‘transformed our ideas about the cosmos’

The Nobel Committee on Tuesday awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize for Physics to three scientists whose work "transformed our ideas about the cosmos."

Canadian-American cosmologist James Peebles was recognized “for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology,” while the other half of the Nobel was jointly awarded to Swiss cosmologists Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz “for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star.”

"While James Peebles' theoretical discoveries contributed to our understanding of how the universe evolved after the Big Bang, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz explored our cosmic neighborhoods on the hunt for unknown planets. Their discoveries have forever changed our conceptions of the world," said Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences secretary general Goran Hansson.

"This year's Nobel laureates in Physics have painted a picture of the Universe far stranger and more wonderful than we ever could have imagined. Our view of our place in the universe will never be the same again," added theoretical physicist and Nobel Committee member Ulf Danielsson at the press conference for the announcement of the winners.

Peebles is Albert Einstein Professor of Science at Princeton University, while Mayor and Queloz are both professors at the University of Geneva. Queloz also works at the University of Cambridge in the UK.

Revolutionaries

According to the committee, Mayor and Queloz made the very first discovery of an exoplanet—a planet outside our solar system—in 1995, when they located one orbiting a solar-like star, 51 Pegasi.

The discovery "started a revolution," the committee said, and more than 4,000 exoplanets in the Milky Way have been discovered since then, "Recently, Earth-like planets with the potential to host life have been discovered " said molecular physicist and Nobel Committee for Physics chairperson Mats Larsson.

"Strange new worlds are still being discovered, with an incredible wealth of sizes, forms and orbits. They challenge our preconceived ideas about planetary systems and are forcing scientists to revise their theories of the physical processes behind the origins of planets," the committee said.

Foundational work

Peebles, on the other hand, is recognized for decades of work in physical cosmology, which has contributed to current ideas about the evolution of the universe after the Big Bang.

"His theoretical framework, developed since the mid-1960s, is the basis of our contemporary ideas about the universe," the committee said.

Peebles' work showed that the parts of the cosmos that humans have observed, including galaxies, stars, planets, make up possibly less than 5% of the universe, with the rest being made up of still-unknown dark matter and dark energy.

"One of the wonderful things about this exploration is that we don't know what we will see, and it is true here," he said in a telephone interview with the committee after the announcement.

"I hope that we will be surprised by what is found to be the nature of dark matter."

— BM, GMA News