Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2019

18 SPACE CHRONICLES by ESO Bárbara Ferreira 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics for the first exoplanet around a Sun-like star M ichel Mayor and Didier Queloz have been awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the first exoplanet around a Sun-like star. Mayor, Professor Emeritus at Geneva University in Switzerland, and Queloz, Professor of Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, UK, share the prize “for contribu- tions to our understanding of the evolution of the universe and Earth’s place in the cosmos” with James Peebles, Albert Einstein Pro- fessor Emeritus of Science at Prince- ton University, US. “ESO is really proud of the Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Michel Mayor and Di- dier Queloz for having pioneered a new field in astronomy with the dis- covery of 51 Pegasi b and many more exoplanets after.” says ESO Di- rector General Xavier Barcons. “The partnership that ESO cultivates with research institutions in the Member States for the development of the most challenging instruments has been key to enable many of these discoveries. In particular HARPS on the ESO 3.6-metre telescope in La Silla Observatory and more recently ESPRESSO on the Very Large Tele- scope in Paranal are leading the world in radial-velocity searches of planets around stars outside the Solar System. ESO celebrates that two outstanding members of its sci- entific community, with very strong commitment to ESO, and very suc- cessful use of our facilities, have been given this well-deserved recog- nition.” The discovery of 51 Pegasi b, the first exoplanet ever found around a Sun-type star, was an- nounced on 6 October 1995 by Mayor and Queloz, who detected it using the ELODIE spectrograph at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence in France. The discovery revolu- tionised astronomy, initiating an en- tirely new field and new instruments focused on finding and characteris- ing exoplanets. The success of ELODIE led to the con- struction of CORALIE, an improved version of ELODIE mounted on the 1.2-metre Swiss Euler Telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. The knowledge gained from build- ing and operating these two instru- ments was put in the development of HARPS, the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher, which began operations in 2003. The light from 51 Pegasi b was also observed by HARPS, which performed the first-ever spectroscopic detection of W orld-renowned Swiss as- tronomers Didier Queloz and Michel Mayor of the Geneva Observatory are seen here in front of ESO’s 3.6-metre telescope at La Silla Observa- tory in Chile. The telescope hosts HARPS, the world’s lead- ing exoplanet hunter. They were awarded the 2011 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowl- edge Award in Basic Sciences for their ground-breaking work on exoplanets. [ESO, L. Wein- stein/Ciel et Espace Photos]