- Title: Nobel physics prize awarded to Peebles, Mayor and Queloz for cosmic discoveries
- Date: 8th October 2019
- Summary: ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** (SOUNDBITE) (English) MEMBER OF THE NOBEL COMMITTEE, PROFESSOR ULF DANIELSSON, EXPLAINING THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE PRIZE, SAYING: "The whole universe was in a hot, dense state, then nearly 14 billion years ago expansion started. We don't know what happened before then, but after a little less than 400,000 years of expansion the universe had cooled down to a temperature of a few thousand degrees." (SOUNDBITE) (English) MEMBER OF THE NOBEL COMMITTEE, PROFESSOR ULF DANIELSSON, EXPLAINING THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE PRIZE, SAYING (SOUNDBITE BEGINS AND ENDS WITH PICTURE OF SCREEN SHOWING EXPLANATORY GRAPHICS): "One can compare our universe to a cup of coffee (POURS A CUP OF COFFEE) Most of it is of course coffee. This is the dark energy. Then a fair amount of cream. (POURS CREAM) This is the dark matter. And then there's a tiny little bit of sugar. (POURS SUGAR) This is the ordinary matter. This is what science has been all about for thousands of years (PUTS AWAY CUP) up until now. This is a picture of our universe looking back almost 14 billion years in time. This is the cosmic background radiation."
- Embargoed: 22nd October 2019 12:48
- Keywords: Nobel Physics Nobel prize in physics
- Location: STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
- City: STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
- Country: Sweden
- Topics: Science
- Reuters ID: LVA003B08LAH3
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Canadian-American cosmologist James Peebles and Swiss scientists Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday (October 8) for revealing the wonder of the evolution of the universe and discovering planets orbiting distant suns.
Peebles, of Princeton University in the United States, was awarded half of the 9-million-Swedish-crown (910,000 U.S. dollar) prize while Mayor and Queloz, from Switzerland's University of Geneva and Britain's Cambridge University, shared the rest.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the scientists' research had "transformed our ideas about the cosmos".
Physics is the second Nobel to be awarded this week. William Kaelin, Gregg Semenza and Peter Ratcliffe shared the medicine prize on Monday (October 7) for discoveries about how cells respond to oxygen levels.
Among the Nobels, physics has often taken centre stage with winners featuring some of the greatest names in science like Albert Einstein, Marie Curie and Niels Bohr, as well as ground-breaking inventors such as radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi.
Using theoretical tools and calculations, Peebles was able to interpret trace radiation from the infancy of the universe and so discover new physical processes, the academy said. It said that Mayor and Queloz announced the first discovery of a planet outside our own solar system, a so-called "exoplanet", starting a revolution in astronomy. Over 4,000 exoplanets have since been found in the Milky Way.
(Production: Ilze Filks, Chiara Rodriquez) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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