The Exoplanet RevolutionSpeaker
Didier Queloz is Professor of Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory and Geneva University. He is at the origin of the exoplanet revolution in astrophysics. Until recently, the Solar System has provided us with the only basis for our knowledge of planets and life in the universe. In 1995 Prof Queloz has dramatically changed this view with the discovery he made with Michel Mayor of the first giant planet outside the solar system. This seminal discovery has spawned a real revolution in astronomy both in terms of new instrumentation and understanding of planet formation and evolution. Over the next 25 years, Didier Queloz scientific contributions have essentially been to make progress in detection and measurement capabilities of exoplanet systems with the goal to retrieve information on their physical structure to better understand their formation and evolution by comparison with our solar system. More recently he is directing his activity to the detection of Earth like planets and Universal life. In the course of his career he developed astronomical equipments, new observational approaches and detection algorithms. He participated and conducted programs leading to the detection of hundred planets, include breakthrough results. He participated to numerous documentaries movies, articles TV and radio interviews to share excitement and promote interest for science in general and particularly topics In 2013 he become professor at Cambridge University where he is leading a comprehensive research program with the goal of making further progress in our understanding of their formation, structure, and habitability of exoplanet in the Universe as well as to promote and share the excitement of this work with the public. For his work he received the 2019 Physics Nobel Prize
Description
Until recently, the solar system provided the only basis for our knowledge of planets and life in the Universe. In 1995 Didier Queloz and Michel Mayor dramatically changed this view with their discovery of the first giant planet outside our solar system. This spawned a revolution in astronomy, both in terms of new instrumentation and in our understanding of planet formation and evolution. Planets outside our solar system, orbiting other stars, are called exoplanets. Thousands of exoplanets have been identified over the last three decades, ranging from large planets like Jupiter to smaller denser objects like the Earth. The diversity and prolific quantity of these discoveries has revolutionised our understanding of the nature and formation of planets, opening up a surprising new perspective on the possible rarity of planetary systems similar to our own. It has also raised exciting prospects for the potential to probe planetary atmospheres for traces of life. Didier Queloz is Professor of Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge and Professor of Astronomy at the University of Geneva. His research focuses on the detection and measurement of exoplanet systems, aiming to retrieve information about their physical structure and to better understand their formation and evolution, by comparison with our solar system. More recently he has worked on the detection of Earth-like planets and life in the Universe. In 2019 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his research and discoveries. At Cambridge he leads a research program with the goal of making further progress in our understanding of the formation, structure, and habitability of exoplanets in the Universe, as well as to promote and share the excitement of this work with the public. This talk is part of the Darwin College Lecture Series series.