Michel Mayor
Michel Mayor | |
---|---|
Born | Michel Gustave Édouard Mayor 12 January 1942 Lausanne, Switzerland |
Education | University of Lausanne (MS) University of Geneva (PhD) |
Known for | Discovered first planet orbiting around a normal star, 51 Pegasi |
Awards | Prix Jules Janssen (1998) Shaw Prize (2005) Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences (2015) Wolf Prize (2017) Nobel Prize in Physics (2019) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Astrophysics |
Institutions | University of Geneva |
Thesis | "The kinematical properties of stars in the solar vicinity: possible relation with the galactic spiral structure" (1971) |
Doctoral students | Didier Queloz |
Michel Gustave Édouard Mayor (French pronunciation:
Together with
Mayor holds MS in
Career
From 1971 to 1984, Mayor worked as a research associate at the
Research
Mayor's research interests include extrasolar planets (also known as
During his time as a research associate, there had been strong interest in developing
This research led to various fields of interest, including the study of statistical characteristics of solar-type binary stars. With fellow researcher Antoine Duquennoy, they examined the radial velocities of several systems believed to be binary stars in 1991. Their results found that a subset of these may in fact be single star systems with substellar secondary objects.[13] Desiring more accurate radial velocity measurements, Mayor, along with Baranne at Marseille, and with graduate student Didier Queloz, developed ELODIE, a new spectrograph based on the work of CORAVEL, which was estimated to have an accuracy of 15 m/s for bright stars, improving upon the 1 km/s from CORAVEL. ELODIE was developed with the specific intent to determine if the substellar secondary objects were brown dwarf stars or potentially giant planets.[14]
By 1994, ELODIE was operational at Geneva and Mayor and Queloz began their survey of Sun-like systems with suspected substellar secondary objects.
Mayor's work focused more on improving instrumentation for radial velocity measurements to improve detecting exoplanets and measuring their properties. Mayor led a team to further improve ELODIE to increase velocity measurement accuracy to 1 m/s via the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) installed on the ESO 3.6 m Telescope at La Silla Observatory in Chile by 2003.[19] Mayor led the team that used HARPS to seek out other exoplanets. In 2007, Mayor was one of 11 European scientists who discovered Gliese 581c, the first extrasolar planet in a star's habitable zone, from the ESO telescope.[20] In 2009, Mayor and his team discovered the lightest exoplanet ever detected around a main sequence star: Gliese 581e.[21] Nonetheless, Mayor noted that humans will never migrate to such exoplanets since they are "much, much too far away ... [and would take] hundreds of millions of days using the means we have available today".[8] However, due to discoveries by Mayor, searching for extraterrestrial communications from exoplanets may now be a more practical consideration than thought earlier.[9]
Awards and distinctions
In 1998, Mayor was awarded the Swiss Marcel Benoist Prize[1] in recognition of his work and its significance for human life. As of 2003, he was a member of the board of trustees. He received the Prix Jules Janssen from the Société astronomique de France (French Astronomical Society) in 1998.[22]
In 2000, he was awarded the
In collaboration with Pierre-Yves Frei, Mayor wrote a book in French called Les Nouveaux mondes du Cosmos (Seuil, 260 pages), which was awarded the Livre de l'astronomie 2001 prize by the 17th Astronomy Festival Haute Maurienne.[24]
Mayor has received honorary doctorate degrees from eight universities:
Mayor has received the 2011
In 2015, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society,[27] and the Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences. In 2017, he received the Wolf Prize in Physics.[28] He and Didier Queloz (also from Switzerland) were awarded one half of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the exoplanet 51 Pegasi b.[29]
Participation in professional associations
- Publisher and organizer of nine Saas-Fee Advanced Courses of the Swiss Society of Astrophysics and Astronomy[24]
- Member of the editorial board of Europhysics News, 1985–1990[24]
- Swiss delegate for the European Space Agency (ESA)'s Astronomical Working Group, 1985–1987[24]
- President of the International Astronomical Union (IAU)'s Commission 33 on the "Structure and dynamics of the galactic system, 1988–1991[24]
- Chairman of the European Southern Observatory's Scientific Technical Committee, 1990–1992[24]
- President of the Swiss Society of Astrophysics and Astronomy (SAAS), 1990–1993[24]
- Member of the organizing committee of the IAU Commission on Bioastronomy, 1997–2003[24]
- Swiss delegate to the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Council, 2003–2007[24]
- President of the IAU commission on extra-solar planets, 2006–2009[24]
- Foreign Associate of the French Academy of Sciences (Académie des sciences), 2003[24]
- Honorary Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (UK), 2008[24]
- Foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences (US), 2010[24]
- Foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2010
References
- ^ a b c d e f g "Conference du 26 Septembre 2007" (in French). Cercle des amities internationales, Geneve. September 2007. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
- ^ a b "125076 Michelmayor (2001 UD6)". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
- ^ Chang, Kenneth; Specia, Megan (8 October 2019). "Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded for Cosmic Discoveries". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 8 October 2019. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
- ^ "Viktor Ambartsumian International Prize". Vaprize.sci.am. 18 July 2014. Archived from the original on 14 September 2016. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
- S2CID 4339201.
- Nobel Media AB. Archivedfrom the original on 10 October 2019. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
- . Retrieved 4 April 2022.
- ^ a b Staff (9 October 2019). "Humans will not 'migrate' to other planets, Nobel winner says". Phys.org. Archived from the original on 10 October 2019. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
- ^ a b Shostak, Seth (9 October 2019). "How a discovery that earned the Nobel Prize in Physics transformed the hunt for alien life". NBC News. Archived from the original on 10 October 2019. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
- ^ "Michel Mayor". The Planetary Society. Archived from the original on 8 August 2019. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
- ^ "Michel Mayor". The Planetary Society. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
- ISBN 978-1107031746.
- Bibcode:1991A&A...248..485D.
- (PDF) from the original on 9 August 2017. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
- Science Daily. Archivedfrom the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
- S2CID 4339201.
- PMID 24352276.
- ^ "Cosmic Milestone: NASA Confirms 5,000 Exoplanets". NASA. 21 March 2022. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
- The Messenger. No. 105. pp. 1–7. Archived(PDF) from the original on 30 January 2018. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
- ^ Borenstein, Seth (25 April 2007). "Red dwarf is mother to an Earth-like planet". The Sydney Morning Herald. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 10 October 2019. Retrieved 17 March 2009.
- S2CID 2983930. Archived from the original(PDF) on 21 May 2009.
- ^ "Prix Janssen" (in French). Société astronomique de France. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
- ^ Overbye, Dennis (12 May 2013). "Finder of New Worlds". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 17 May 2014. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
- ^ French Academy of Science. 3 May 2010. Archived(PDF) from the original on 10 October 2019. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
- ^ "The BBVA Foundation presents its Frontiers of Knowledge Awards at a ceremony enthroning science and culture as motors of development". BBVA Foundation. 12 June 2012. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
- ^ "MPC/MPO/MPS Archive". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
- ^ "Winners of the 2015 awards, medals and prizes - full details". Royal Astronomical Society. Archived from the original on 20 March 2017. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
- ^ Jerusalempost Wolf Prizes 2017, jpost.com; accessed 26 March 2017.
- Nobel Media AB. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
External links
- Michel Mayor's profile on University of Geneva website
- Michel Mayor on Nobelprize.org including his Nobel lecture Sunday 8 December 2019 "Plurality of Worlds in the Cosmos: A Dream of Antiquity, A Modern Reality of Astrophysics"
- Michel Mayor's profile on Kyoto Prize website