- Title: Nobel Prize win is emotionally 'intense' - Swiss astronomer Queloz
- Date: 8th October 2019
- Summary: SCREEN SHOWING PICTURES OF WINNERS MICHEL MAYOR AND DIDIER QUELOZ
- Embargoed: 22nd October 2019 15:54
- Keywords: Brexit exoplanets science astrophysics 2019 Nobel Prize for Physics astronomy climate change Cambridge University extraterrestrial life
- Location: STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN / LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- City: STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN / LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Science
- Reuters ID: LVA002B08MO93
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Swiss scientist Didier Queloz on Tuesday (October 8) said the minutes after finding out he had won the 2019 Nobel Prize for Physics were "extremely intense."
An astrophysicist at Britain's Cambridge University, Queloz was awarded the 2019 prize jointly with fellow Swiss scientist Michel Mayor for discovering planets orbiting distant suns.
The two split the price with Canadian-American cosmologist James Peebles, of Princeton University in the United States, for his work on revealing the wonder of evolution.
Queloz, a one-time doctoral student of Mayor, announced the first discovery of a planet outside our own solar system, a so-called "exoplanet", in 1995.
Since their discovery, more than 4,000 exoplanets have been found in the Milky Way, many of them nothing like our own world.
Indeed, the first planet they found, 51 Pegasi b, orbits a sun 50 light years away that heats its surface to more than 1,000 degrees centigrade, the award-giving academy said.
The difference between exoplanets and those in our own solar system "makes the mystery deeper... and even more interesting," Queloz said at a news conference in London following the Nobel announcement. "We still have a lot of questions to answer."
For many in the field, the focus of research has now shifted from finding more planets to finding out more about them, Queloz said.
"We are convinced there must be life on the planets, otherwise we would not search for it."
(Production: Will Russell, Kristian Brunse) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: Footage contains photographs or artwork. User is responsible for obtaining additional clearances before publishing this clip.
