He learned he won Nobel prize via internet, Swiss physicist Mayor says

Record ID: 1435846

  • Title: He learned he won Nobel prize via internet, Swiss physicist Mayor says
  • Date: 9th October 2019
  • Summary: VERSOIX, SWITZERLAND (OCTOBER 8, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF GENEVA OBSERVATORY MADRID, SPAIN (OCTOBER 9, 2019) (REUTERS) WINNER OF PHYSICS NOBEL PRIZE MICHEL MAYOR (SOUNDBITE) (French) WINNER OF PHYSICS NOBEL PRIZE MICHEL MAYOR SAYING: "It was quite a shock when I discovered, a bit by luck when I was on the internet that I was among the recipients of the (Nobel) prize this year. Because even if we dream about it at times, not everyone gets lucky to be among those selected. So it is an immense joy for me as well as for all the people who were involved in this work, because we don't build complicated tools to discover planets alone. We have a whole team working with us." MAYOR DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (French) WINNER OF PHYSICS NOBEL PRIZE MICHEL MAYOR SAYING: "For 2,000 years, people have been talking about pluralility of worlds in the universe, and eventually about the plurality of inhabited worlds in the universe. This question was studied, discussed for two millennia. And suddenly, now, we have the opportunity to transform that, this dream scenario in the scientific world. And now we see what is happening, which is that in the beginning, around 24, 25 years ago, there were about four groups of two people working in this field. Now thousands of people work in this field. Several satellites have been launched, and several more are going to be launched." MAYOR'S HAND (SOUNDBITE) (French) WINNER OF PHYSICS NOBEL PRIZE MICHEL MAYOR SAYING: "Everything remains to be discovered, so obviously people are interested in this subject, especially that it brings to mind any ordinary's person's dreams, to know whether there is life in the universe; what kind of life; would we be able to make contact? There is huge curiosity behind it." VERSOIX, SWITZERLAND (OCTOBER 8, 2019) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF OBSERVATORY
  • Embargoed: 23rd October 2019 11:34
  • Keywords: Nobel prize winner physist Michel Mayor planets cosmos
  • Location: VERSOIX, SWITZERLAND / STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN / MADRID, SPAIN
  • City: VERSOIX, SWITZERLAND / STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN / MADRID, SPAIN
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Science
  • Reuters ID: LVA002B0DKW1Z
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: FOR ENGLISH SOUNDBITES SEE 3151-NOBEL-PRIZE/PHYSICS-MAYOR-INTERVIEW UPDATE
    It was through the internet that Swiss scientist Michel Mayor learned that he was among the trio that won the Nobel Prize for Physics on Tuesday (October 8).
    "It was quite a shock when I discovered," he said. "It is an immense joy for me as well as for all the people who were involved in this work."
    Mayor, along with Canadian-American cosmologist James Peebles and fellow Swiss scientist Didier Queloz were awarded the prestigious prize for revealing the wonder of the evolution of the universe and discovering planets orbiting distant suns.
    The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the scientists' research had "transformed our ideas about the cosmos."
    Mayor and his one-time doctoral student Queloz announced the first discovery of a planet outside our own solar system, a so-called "exoplanet," in 1995.
    "For 2,000 years, people have been talking about pluralility of worlds in the universe, and eventually about the plurality of inhabited worlds in the universe. This question was studied, discussed for two millennia," Mayor said in an interview in Madrid.
    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.
    Mayor said the growing interest and amount of resources devoted to the field, 25 after their first discovery, is "a dream".
    With numerous ongoing searches for more exoplanets, this science might eventually also "find an answer to the eternal question of whether other life is out there," the academy said.
    (Production: Guillermo Martinez, Lucy Marks, Noémie Olive, Michaela Cabrera)
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