Speaker Jorge H. C. Martins (Porto U., Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço)
Title: A Nobel Prize for the discovery of other worlds
Abstract:
In 2019, the Nobel Prize of Physics was awarded "for contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the universe and Earth's place in the cosmos". The prize was actually shared between two subjects that could not be more distinct: cosmology and exoplanetary science. In this presentation, I will speak about the exoplanetary science half of the prize, the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star by Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz. In particular, I will focus on how this discovery opened the window to a whole new field of astrophysics and drove (and still drives) the development of the new generations of ground based instruments and space missions dedicated to the discovery and characterization of the planets around stars other than the Sun.
Room: ZOOM videoconference (contact justin.feng@tecnico.ulisboa.pt for URL)