Palestra - A Nobel for the discovery of other worlds

Nuno Cardoso Santos

DFA-FCUP

21 de novembro de 2019, 14:00

Anfiteatro -120, DFA-FC3

The 2019 Physics Nobel Prize was awarded "for contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the universe and Earth's place in the cosmos". Half of the prize is actually offered to the two astronomers that discovered in 1995 the first exoplanet orbiting a solar like star, 51 Peg b. The subsequent development of a whole new generation of ground based instruments and space missions allowed to discover thousands of exoplanets orbiting other stars, showing that planets are ubiquitous in our Galaxy. The detection and characterization of other Earths, planets with conditions to harbour life, are now major milestones for the reference international agencies (ESA, ESO, NASA).

In this talk I will briefly review how the discovery of 51 Peg b opened the window to a whole new field of astrophysics.