Nobel Prize in Physics 2019
We present this Collection of research, review and comment from Nature Research to celebrate the award of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics to James Peebles “for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology” and to Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz “for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star”. Together, these discoveries have changed the way we view the Universe, and our place within it.
From the winners
A Jupiter-mass companion to a solar-type star
- Michel Mayor &
- Didier Queloz
ARTICLE23 NOV 1995Nature
Doppler spectroscopy as a path to the detection of Earth-like planets
- Michel Mayor,
- Christophe Lovis &
- Nuno C. Santos
REVIEW ARTICLE17 SEP 2014Nature
Growth of the nonbaryonic dark matter theory
From the first hints of unseen matter in the Universe to the present body of evidence for dark matter, James Peebles outlines the significant developments in observation and theory in the 1970s in this Insight Perspective.
- P. J. E. Peebles
PERSPECTIVE2 MAR 2017Nature Astronomy
Nearby galaxies as pointers to a better theory of cosmic evolution
The relativistic Big Bang theory of cosmic evolution gives a good description of our expanding Universe on the grand scale. But closer to home, where we can observe galactic properties in detail, its predictions go awry. For instance, some of the largest…
- P. J. E. Peebles &
- Adi Nusser
REVIEW ARTICLE3 JUN 2010Nature
The case for the relativistic hot Big Bang cosmology
- P. J. E. Peebles,
- D. N. Schramm ⋯
- R. G. Kron
REVIEW ARTICLE29 AUG 1991Nature
Robert Henry Dicke (1916–97) Physicist whose work led to the discovery of the cosmic microwave background
- P. J. E. Peebles &
- D. T. Wilkinson
NEWS & VIEWS3 APR 1997Nature
A super-Earth transiting a nearby low-mass star
'Super-Earths' are extrasolar planets about two to ten times the mass of the Earth, too small to be considered 'Jupiters'. Observations from the MEarth Project — using two 40-cm (16-inch) telescopes that will eventually be part of an eight-telescope array — have…
- David Charbonneau,
- Zachory K. Berta ⋯
- Thierry Forveille
LETTER17 DEC 2009Nature
An extended upper atmosphere around the extrasolar planet HD209458b
- A. Vidal-Madjar,
- A. Lecavelier des Etangs ⋯
- M. Mayor
LETTER13 MAR 2003Nature
Exoplanets
First exoplanet found around a Sun-like star
In 1995, astronomers detected a blisteringly hot Jupiter-mass planet orbiting closer to its host star than Mercury is to the Sun. This discovery recast our thinking of how planets form and led to a new era of exoplanetary exploration.
- Eliza Kempton
NEWS & VIEWS8 OCT 2019Nature
On the wings of Pegasus
- Gordon Walker
NEWS & VIEWS23 NOV 1995Nature
365 days: Nature's 10
Ten people who mattered this year.
NEWS FEATURE18 DEC 2013Nature News
A planetary system around the millisecond pulsar PSR1257 + 12
- A. Wolszczan &
- D. A. Frail
LETTER9 JAN 1992Nature
Temperate Earth-sized planets transiting a nearby ultracool dwarf star
Three Earth-sized planets—receiving similar irradiation to Venus and Earth, and ideally suited for atmospheric study—have been found transiting a nearby ultracool dwarf star that has a mass of only eight per cent of that of the Sun.
- Michaël Gillon,
- Emmanuël Jehin ⋯
- Didier Queloz
LETTER2 MAY 2016Nature
Seven temperate terrestrial planets around the nearby ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1
Last year, three Earth-sized planets were discovered to be orbiting the nearby Jupiter-sized star TRAPPIST-1; now, follow-up photometric observations from the ground and from space show that there are at least seven Earth-sized planets in this star system, and…
- Michaël Gillon,
- Amaury H. M. J. Triaud ⋯
- Didier Queloz
LETTER22 FEB 2017Nature
Physical cosmology
Cosmology at a crossroads
We are at an interesting juncture in cosmology. Despite vast improvements in the measurement accuracy of the Hubble constant, a recent tension has arisen that is either signalling new physics or as-yet unrecognized uncertainties.
- Wendy L. Freedman
COMMENT2 MAY 2017Nature Astronomy
Tensions between the early and late Universe
A Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics workshop in July 2019 directed attention to the Hubble constant discrepancy. New results showed that it does not appear to depend on the use of any one method, team or source. Proposed solutions focused on the pre-recombination era.
- Licia Verde,
- Tommaso Treu &
- Adam G. Riess
MEETING REPORT27 SEP 2019Nature Astronomy
A gravitational-wave standard siren measurement of the Hubble constant
The astronomical event GW170817, detected in gravitational and electromagnetic waves, is used to determine the expansion rate of the Universe, which is consistent with and independent of existing measurements.
- The LIGO Scientific Collaboration and The Virgo Collaboration,
- B. P. Abbott ⋯
- M. Serra-Ricart
LETTER16 OCT 2017Nature
Type Ia supernovae as stellar endpoints and cosmological tools
Type Ia supernovae are thought to result from the explosion of white dwarf stars but a full understanding of their formation is lacking. In this review, Howell describes how large surveys are generating sufficient data to challenge and refine existing theories.
- D. Andrew Howell
REVIEW ARTICLE14 JUN 2011Nature Communications
Cluster richness–mass calibration with cosmic microwave background lensing
Mapping the optical emission of a galaxy cluster to its mass is challenging. Lensing of the cosmic microwave background by massive clusters is used to calibrate the optical richness of clusters to their total baryonic mass at the ten per cent level.
- James E. Geach &
- John A. Peacock
LETTER9 OCT 2017Nature Astronomy
The observational case for a low-density Universe with a non-zero cosmological constant
- J. P. Ostriker &
- Paul J. Steinhardt
LETTER19 OCT 1995Nature
Further reading
Dynamical dark energy in light of the latest observations
Recent observations reveal tension between various cosmological probes. Assuming dark energy to be non-constant, depending on redshift, may relieve this tension. The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument survey will be able to confirm this result.
- Gong-Bo Zhao,
- Marco Raveri ⋯
- Hanyu Zhang
LETTER28 AUG 2017Nature Astronomy
Crack in the cosmological paradigm
A time-dependent dark energy component of the Universe may be able to explain tensions between local and primordial measurements of cosmological parameters, shaking current confidence in the concept of a cosmological ‘constant’.
- Eleonora Di Valentino
NEWS & VIEWS5 SEP 2017Nature Astronomy
The baryon content of galaxy clusters: a challenge to cosmological orthodoxy
- Simon D. M. White,
- Julio F. Navarro ⋯
- Carlos S. Frenk
ARTICLE2 DEC 1993Nature
First constraint on the neutrino-induced phase shift in the spectrum of baryon acoustic oscillations
In the early Universe, fluctuations in the neutrino density produced a distinct shift in the temporal phase of sound waves in the primordial plasma. The size of this phase shift has now been constrained through baryon acoustic oscillation data.
- Daniel Baumann,
- Florian Beutler ⋯
- Christophe Yèche
ARTICLE25 FEB 2019Nature Physics
Precision cosmology from future lensed gravitational wave and electromagnetic signals
Gravitational wave sources can be used as cosmological probes through a direct distance luminosity relation. Here, the authors demonstrate that the time delay between lensed gravitational wave signals and their electromagnetic counterparts can reduce the uncertainty in the Hubble constant.
- Kai Liao,
- Xi-Long Fan ⋯
- Zong-Hong Zhu
ARTICLEOPEN ACCESS27 OCT 2017Nature Communications
The Evolution of the Universe
- G. GAMOW
ARTICLE30 OCT 1948Nature
Evolution of the Universe
- RALPH A. ALPHER &
- ROBERT HERMAN
LETTER13 NOV 1948Nature
Extrasolar planets
Natural philosophers have speculated on the existence of worlds around other suns for millennia. Now that real data are available, we find a diversity far beyond that expected by scientists, or science-fiction writers.
- Jack J. Lissauer
NEWS AND VIEWS FEATURE26 SEP 2002Nature
The truth about exoplanets
Astronomers are beginning to glimpse what exoplanets orbiting distant suns are actually like.
- Jeff Hecht
NEWS FEATURE17 FEB 2016Nature
Strange news from other stars
The dawn of exoplanet discovery has unearthed a rich tapestry of planets different from anything encountered in the Solar System. Geoscientists can and should be in the vanguard of investigating what is out there in the Universe.
- Raymond T. Pierrehumbert
COMMENTARY31 JAN 2013Nature Geoscience
An extrasolar planetary system with three Neptune-mass planets
As the techniques used to search for extrasolar planets have been refined, more and more have been discovered (over 170), and they get smaller. In recent years seven ‘hot Neptunes’ or ‘super-Earths’ have been detected. These have masses 5–20 times larger than…
- Christophe Lovis,
- Michel Mayor ⋯
- Jean-Pierre Sivan
ARTICLE18 MAY 2006Nature
The unseen companion of HD114762: a probable brown dwarf
- David W. Latham,
- Tsevi Mazeh ⋯
- Gilbert Burki
LETTER4 MAY 1989Nature
A seven-planet resonant chain in TRAPPIST-1
Orbital parameters for the seventh Earth-sized transiting planet around star TRAPPIST-1 are reported, along with an investigation into the complex three-body resonances linking every member of this planetary system.
- Rodrigo Luger,
- Marko Sestovic ⋯
- Didier Queloz
LETTER22 MAY 2017Nature Astronomy
An Earth-sized planet with an Earth-like density
Data from the Kepler spacecraft and the HARPS-N ground-based spectrograph indicate that the extrasolar planet Kepler-78b has a mean density similar to that of Earth and imply that it is composed of rock and iron.
- Francesco Pepe,
- Andrew Collier Cameron ⋯
- Christopher A. Watson
LETTER30 OCT 2013Nature
A combined transmission spectrum of the Earth-sized exoplanets TRAPPIST-1 b and c
- Julien de Wit,
- Hannah R. Wakeford ⋯
- Valérie Van Grootel
LETTER20 JUL 2016Nature
A map of the large day–night temperature gradient of a super-Earth exoplanet
A longitudinal thermal brightness map of the super-Earth exoplanet 55 Cancri e reveals strong day–night temperature contrast, indicating inefficient heat redistribution consistent with 55 Cancri e either being devoid of atmosphere or having an optically thick…
- Brice-Olivier Demory,
- Michael Gillon ⋯
- Didier Queloz
LETTER30 MAR 2016Nature
A transiting giant planet with a temperature between 250 K and 430 K
Of the more than 400 known exoplanets, about 70 transit their central star, most in small orbits (with periods of around 1 day, for instance). Here, observations are reported of the transit of CoRoT-9b, which orbits with a period of 95.274 days, on a low…
- H. J. Deeg,
- C. Moutou ⋯
- G. Wuchterl
LETTER18 MAR 2010Nature
A rocky planet transiting a nearby low-mass star
A low-mass star that is just 12 parsecs away from Earth is shown to be transited by an Earth-sized planet, GJ 1132b, which probably has a rock/iron composition and might support a substantial atmosphere.
- Zachory K. Berta-Thompson,
- Jonathan Irwin ⋯
- Anaël Wünsche
LETTER11 NOV 2015Nature
A giant impact as the likely origin of different twins in the Kepler-107 exoplanet system
Kepler-107 b and c have the same radius but, contrary to expectations, the outermost Kepler-107 c is much denser. This difference cannot be explained by photoevaporation by stellar high-energy particle flux and it suggests that Kepler-107 c experienced a giant impact event.
- Aldo S. Bonomo,
- Li Zeng ⋯
- Chris Watson
LETTER4 FEB 2019Nature Astronomy
The next exoplanet mission to fly
As the CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (CHEOPS) is scheduled for launch later this year, European Space Agency (ESA) Project Scientist Kate Isaak and Principal Investigator Willy Benz give an overview of ESA’s first science mission dedicated to the follow-up…
- K. G. Isaak &
- W. Benz
MISSION CONTROL9 SEP 2019Nature Astronomy
A terrestrial planet candidate in a temperate orbit around Proxima Centauri
A small planet of at least 1.3 Earth masses is orbiting Proxima Centauri with a period of about 11.2 days, with the potential for liquid water on its surface.
- Guillem Anglada-Escudé,
- Pedro J. Amado ⋯
- Mathias Zechmeister
LETTER24 AUG 2016Nature
A temperate rocky super-Earth transiting a nearby cool star
An Earth-sized planet is observed orbiting a nearby star within the liquid-water, habitable zone, the atmospheric composition of which could be determined from future observations.
- Jason A. Dittmann,
- Jonathan M. Irwin ⋯
- Courtney D. Dressing
LETTER19 APR 2017Nature
A candidate super-Earth planet orbiting near the snow line of Barnard’s star
Analysis of 20 years of observations of Barnard’s star from seven facilities reveals a signal with a period of 233 days that is indicative of a companion planet.
- I. Ribas,
- M. Tuomi ⋯
- G. Anglada-Escudé
LETTER14 NOV 2018Nature
