Peebles, Queloz, Mayor Awarded Nobel Prize for Physics

James Peebles’, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz were jointly awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize for Physics for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology.

2019 Nobel Prize in Physics rewards new understanding of the universe’s structure and history, and the first discovery of a planet orbiting a solar-type star outside our solar system.

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.

The results showed us a universe in which just five percent of its content is known, the matter which constitutes stars, planets, trees and us. The rest, 95 % is unknown dark matter and dark energy. This is a mystery and a challenge to modern physics.

James Peebles’, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz

In October 1995, Mayor and 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.

theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology

Noteworthy, 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded with one half to Peebles “for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology” and the other half jointly to Mayor and Queloz “for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star.”