This year’s Nobel Prize for physics was won by Canadian-American cosmologist James Peebles and Swiss scientists Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz. They were awarded with the prize for exploring the evolution of the universe and discovering a new kind of planet which have left science enthusiasts all over the world with one question; does life really exist only on Earth?
Peebles, was awarded with half of the prize which is about 9-million-Swedish-crown ($910,000) at the same time, Mayor and Queloz from Switzerland’s University of Geneva and Britain’s Cambridge University shared the rest of the award prize.
“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,” said Ulf Danielsson of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which selected the laureates. “Our view of our place in the universe will never be the same again.”
As a response of this news Mayor and Queloz quoted that it was “simply extraordinary” to be awarded a Nobel for what they described as “the most exciting discovery of our entire career”. Peebles thanked the Nobel committee for selecting them for the award and also gave youngsters an advice not to get attracted by these prizes. “The awards and prizes, well, they are charming and very much appreciated, but…you should enter science because you are fascinated by it. That’s what I did,” he added.
Peebles was able to interpret trace radiation from the infancy of the universe and so discover new physical processes using theoretical tools and calculations, according to the academy.
Mayor and Queloz were credited with having “started a revolution in astronomy” notably with the discovery of exoplanet 51 Pegasi B, a gaseous ball comparable with Jupiter, in 1995. It was a time when “no one knew whether exoplanets existed or not.”
Among all the other Nobel Prizes, physics was always one of a kind. It never failed to recognize world’s greatest minds like Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Bohr etc.
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