2019年度诺贝尔物理学奖解读:两类研究的奇妙组合

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2019: Wonderful combination of two astronomical research areas

时隔两年,诺贝尔物理学奖再次授予天文方向.James Peebles,Michel Mayor和Didier Queloz由于他们在“理解宇宙的演化和地球在宇宙中的位置”方面所做的贡献,获得2019年度诺贝尔物理学奖.笔者身边风趣的天文学家在诺贝尔奖评选的前几日相互逗趣说:“您最近是不是在等一个电话?”(诺贝尔奖委员会打电话通知获奖人).而2019年度的诺贝尔物理学奖,对笔者身边的许多同僚天文学家,可谓意料之外,但也情理之中.

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2019 was awarded to three astronomers,James Peebles,Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz,for their contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the Universe and Earth’s place in the cosmos.Cosmology and exoplanet are quite different research area in astronomy in many aspects.The former belongs to theoretical study and the latter is discovery.Cosmology studies the origin and evolution of the Universe,which is the biggest object in science,while exoplanets are so small compared to the Universe.Cosmology has a long history and exoplanet became the hottest area in astronomy in recent years.However,the public understands the meaning of the discovery of an exoplanets orbiting a sun-like star to human being,but knows less about what happened in the research of cosmology.