Three scientists awarded 2019 Nobel Prize for Physics for discoveries in cosmology

An American cosmologist and two Swiss scientists have won the 2019 Nobel Prize for Physics for their "contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the universe and Earth’s place in the cosmos.”

The one half of the Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to James Peebles, a Canadian-American cosmologist, for "theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology" while the other half will jointly go to Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz - both from the University of Geneva in Switzerland - “for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star."

Peebles, who was born in 1935 in Canada, is Albert Einstein Professor of Science at Princeton University. He will receive half of the 9-million Swedish crown (US $910,000) prize money. 

The second half of the prize money will go to Mayor and Queloz.

Mayor, who was born in 1942 in Switzerland, is a professor at the University of Geneva while Didier Queloz is Professor of Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory and Geneva University.

Announcing this year's prize, Ulf Danielsson, a professor and member of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said, "This year's Nobel laureates have painted a picture of our universe far stranger and more wonderful than we could ever have imagined."

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the Nobel Prize in Physics 2019, said, "This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics rewards new understanding of the universe’s structure and history, and the first discovery of a planet orbiting a solar-type star outside our solar system."

"James Peebles’ insights into physical cosmology have enriched the entire field of research and laid a foundation for the transformation of cosmology over the last fifty years, from speculation to science. His theoretical framework, developed since the mid-1960s, is the basis of our contemporary ideas about the universe," it said. 

Describing, the work of Mayor and Queloz, it said, "In October 1995, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz announced the first discovery of a planet outside our solar system, an exoplanet, orbiting a solar-type star in our home galaxy, the Milky Way. At the Haute-Provence Observatory in southern France, using custom-made instruments, they were able to see planet 51 Pegasi b, a gaseous ball comparable with the solar system’s biggest gas giant, Jupiter."

This discovery started a revolution in astronomy and over 4,000 exoplanets have since been found in the Milky Way, it said. 

"With numerous projects planned to start searching for exoplanets, we may eventually find an answer to the eternal question of whether other life is out there," it added.

"This year’s Laureates have transformed our ideas about the cosmos. While James Peebles’ theoretical discoveries contributed to our understanding of how the universe evolved after the Big Bang, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz explored our cosmic neighbourhoods on the hunt for unknown planets," it further said. 

Their discoveries have forever changed our conceptions of the world, the citation read.