Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to scientists, some rally behind one who never got one
Three scientists have won the Nobel Prize in Physics 2019 for "contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the universe and Earth’s place in the cosmos." But some have rallied behind one astrophysicist who never received the award.
Announced at a ceremony in Stockholm on Tuesday, James Peebles, Michel Mayor, and Didier Queloz were the recipients of the prestigious prize.
"This year’s Laureates have transformed our ideas about the cosmos," reads the Nobel Prize press statement.
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"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. Their discoveries have forever changed our conceptions of the world."
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Peebles, from Princeton University, received one half of the prize for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology. Over two decades from the 1960s, he developed a theoretical framework that interpreted the 'traces' of the Big Bang, which contributed to our modern understanding of the evolution of the universe.
"Using his theoretical tools and calculations, James Peebles was able to interpret these traces from the infancy of the universe and discover new physical processes," reads the Nobel Prize release.
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As Mats Larsson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, told the BBC, Peebles (among others) predicted the existence of what's known as CMB, or cosmic microwave background radiation — the 'afterglow' of the Big Bang. Scientists have since studied CMB to piece together the shape and structure of the universe, and importantly, date it.
"Cosmic background radiation was discovered in 1965, and turned out to be a goldmine for our understanding of how the Universe developed from its early childhood to the present day," he told the news outlet.
The Nobel organization noted that Peebles' findings "showed us a universe in which just five per cent of its content is known, the matter which constitutes stars, planets, trees — and us. The rest, 95 per cent, is unknown dark matter and dark energy. This is a mystery and a challenge to modern physics."
Some have pointed out another scientist, astrophysicist Vera Rubin, who proved the existence of this dark matter years ago by uncovering a phenomenon known as the galaxy rotation problem. But she didn't receive a Nobel Prize before she died in 2016 at the age of 88.
"The existence of dark matter had been proposed by Swiss astrophysicist Fritz Zwicky in the 1930s, but hadn't been confirmed until Rubin's work," reported NPR.
Washington Post reporter Sarah Kaplan pointed out that this year's Nobel Prize in Physics "recognized theories on the 'dark' parts of the universe" but didn't acknowledge Rubin, who proved its very existence.
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Others echoed these sentiments, with some pointing out the glaringly obvious variable.
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The first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 55 years was Donna Strickland in 2018. She was the third female physics laureate to win the prize, and the first since Maria Goeppert-Mayer who won 55 years ago for her discoveries about the nuclei of atoms. The only other female winner is famed historical physicist Marie Curie.
The other half of the 2019 prize was shared by Mayor and Queloz, of the Universities of Geneva and Cambridge, for the discovery of an exoplanet (a planet residing outside our own solar system) orbiting a solar-type star.
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In Oct. 1995, the pair announced their discovery, made at the Haute-Provence Observatory in southern France. Using custom-made instruments, they were able to observe planet 51 Pegasi b, a gaseous ball which can be compared with our solar system's largest gas giant, Jupiter.
Since Mayor and Queloz's discovery, over 4,000 exoplanets have been found in the Milky Way by scientists.
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Aside from the prestige, the Laureates receive a cash prize of 9 million Swedish krona ($908,820), with one half going to Peebles and the other half jointly to Mayor and Queloz.
Additional reporting by Laura Byager.
Shannon Connellan is Mashable's UK Editor based in London, formerly Mashable's Australia Editor, but emotionally, she lives in the Creel House. A Tomatometer-approved critic, Shannon writes about entertainment, tech, social good, science, culture, and Australian horror.
