[ti:3 Scientists Win Nobel Prize in Physics]
[by:www.21voa.com]
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[00:00.04]Three scientists have won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work in helping to understand
[00:08.13]"the evolution of the universe and the Earth's place in the cosmos."
[00:14.88]The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the winners Tuesday.
[00:21.51]Half of the $918,000 in prize money will go to Canadian-born James Peebles,
[00:31.87]a retired professor at Princeton University in the United States.
[00:37.96]The Nobel Committee on Physics praised his theoretical discoveries in cosmology
[00:45.78]– the science of the beginnings and development of the universe.
[00:52.72]The other half of the award will go to Michael Mayor and Didier Queloz,
[01:00.12]both of the University of Geneva in Switzerland.
[01:06.60]In 1995, the two men announced the first discovery of an exoplanet
[01:14.82]— a planet outside our solar system — that orbits a sun-like star.
[01:23.24]Queloz also works at the University of Cambridge in England.
[01:29.92]Ulf Danielsson of the Royal Swedish Academy of Science
[01:35.13]spoke to reporters as the winners were announced.
[01:39.43]"This year's Nobel laureates in physics have painted a picture of the universe
[01:46.90]far stranger and more wonderful than we ever could have imagined," he said.
[01:55.36]Scientists have praised Peebles as one of the most influential cosmologists of his time.
[02:03.80]They say he recognized the importance of the cosmic radiation background
[02:10.77]that was left over from a huge explosion billions of years ago.
[02:18.17]Scientists call the explosion "the Big Bang."
[02:23.60]The Nobel committee said Peebles' theories about the cosmos led to
[02:30.45]"the foundation of our modern understanding of the universe's history,
[02:35.72]from the Big Bang to the present day."
[02:38.92]Peebles laughed repeatedly when he spoke by telephone with The Associated Press.
[02:47.03]He talked about answering the phone before sunrise and thinking
[02:52.56]that "it's either something very wonderful or it's something horrible."
[02:59.56]Mayor and Queloz were credited for having "started a revolution in astronomy"
[03:07.84]with the discovery of exoplanet 51 Pegasi B.
[03:14.14]The gaseous ball is comparable to the planet Jupiter.
[03:19.33]Mayor noted that in 1995, "no one knew whether exoplanets existed or not."
[03:28.96]The committee said more than 4,000 exoplanets have been found
[03:35.57]in our own Milky Way galaxy since then.
[03:41.16]Queloz was meeting with other scientists interested in finding new planets
[03:47.48]when the press office at Cambridge University told him the big news:
[03:53.94]He had won the Nobel Prize.
[03:57.28]He thought it was joke at first.
[04:01.13]"I could barely breathe," Queloz told the AP.
[04:05.68]"It's enormous. It's beyond usual emotions. My hand was shaking for a long time."
[04:16.32]Swedish academy member Mats Larsson said this year's award was
[04:22.57]"one of the easiest physics prizes for a long time to explain."
[04:30.12]"If there are a hundred billion planetary systems,
[04:34.75]with maybe 10 billion planetary systems with Earth-like planets,
[04:41.51]it would be highly unlikely and against all physical theories
[04:47.56]to assume that life only developed on our planet," he added.
[04:55.72]The three men will be recognized at ceremonies in Stockholm on December 10,
[05:02.44]the anniversary of the death of prize founder Alfred Nobel in 1896.
[05:11.36]I'm Anne Ball. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM