Michel Mayor facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Michel Mayor
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Mayor in 2012
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Michel Gustave Édouard Mayor
12 January 1942 Lausanne, Switzerland
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| 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) Albert Einstein Medal(2004) 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 Mayor (born 12 January 1942) is a Swiss astrophysicist. An astrophysicist is a scientist who studies space, stars, and planets. He is a retired professor from the University of Geneva in Switzerland. Even though he retired in 2007, he still works as a researcher at the Observatory of Geneva.
In 2019, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics along with Jim Peebles and Didier Queloz. He also received the 2010 Viktor Ambartsumian International Prize and the 2015 Kyoto Prize.
In 1995, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz made an amazing discovery. They found 51 Pegasi b, the first extrasolar planet (or "exoplanet") orbiting a star like our Sun. This star is called 51 Pegasi. For this important discovery, they were given the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics. Their work helped us understand more about how the universe developed and Earth's place in it.
Mayor has said that humans will probably never move to these exoplanets. He explained that they are "much, much too far away" and would take "hundreds of millions of days" to reach with today's technology. However, his discoveries have made people think more about searching for messages from alien life on other planets.
Contents
Becoming a Scientist: Education and Career
Michel Mayor studied Physics at the University of Lausanne, earning his Master of Science (MS) degree in 1966. He then earned his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in Astronomy from the Geneva Observatory in 1971.
After his studies, he worked as a researcher at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge in 1971. He also spent time researching at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile and the Institute for Astronomy in Hawaii.
From 1971 to 1984, Mayor was a research associate at the Observatory of Geneva. This observatory is part of the University of Geneva. In 1984, he became an associate professor at the university. By 1988, he was a full professor, a position he held until he retired in 2007. He also served as the director of the Observatory of Geneva from 1998 to 2004. Today, he is a professor emeritus at the University of Geneva, meaning he is a retired professor who keeps his title.
Exploring Space: Michel Mayor's Research
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Michel Mayor's main research has been about extrasolar planets, also known as exoplanets. These are planets that orbit stars outside our own solar system. He also studied how to make better tools for observing space. His PhD research looked at the spiral shape of galaxies.
Early in his career, scientists were very interested in using new tools to measure how fast stars move. These tools used light to get very accurate measurements. Mayor worked with another scientist, André Baranne, to create a tool called CORAVEL. This tool could measure the speed of stars very precisely. This helped them understand how stars move, how long it takes for binary stars (two stars orbiting each other) to complete an orbit, and even how fast stars spin.
This work led to many discoveries, including studies of binary stars that are like our Sun. In 1991, Mayor and Antoine Duquennoy studied several star systems. They found that some of these systems might not be two stars, but rather a single star with a smaller object orbiting it.
To get even more accurate measurements, Mayor, Baranne, and a student named Didier Queloz developed a new tool called ELODIE. This new tool was much more precise than CORAVEL. ELODIE was designed to find out if those smaller objects orbiting stars were "brown dwarf" stars (which are like failed stars) or possibly giant planets.
By 1994, ELODIE was ready to use at Geneva. Mayor and Queloz began looking at star systems that might have these smaller objects. In July 1995, their study of the star 51 Pegasi confirmed something amazing. They found an exoplanet orbiting it, which they named 51 Pegasi b. This planet was later called a "hot-Jupiter" because it's a giant gas planet like Jupiter, but it orbits very close to its star, making it hot.
This was the very first exoplanet found orbiting a "main-sequence" star, which is a star like our Sun. Before this, planets had only been found orbiting the remains of dead stars. Mayor and Queloz's discovery sparked a huge interest in finding other exoplanets. As of March 2022, over 5,000 exoplanets have been confirmed!
Mayor's work continued to focus on making better tools to find exoplanets. He led a team to improve ELODIE even more, creating a tool called HARPS. This tool was installed at the La Silla Observatory in Chile in 2003. Using HARPS, Mayor's team continued to search for exoplanets.
In 2007, Mayor was part of a team that discovered Gliese 581c. This was the first exoplanet found in a star's "habitable zone." The habitable zone is the area around a star where temperatures might be just right for liquid water to exist, which is important for life. In 2009, Mayor and his team found the lightest exoplanet ever detected around a main-sequence star, called Gliese 581e.
Awards and Honors
Michel Mayor has received many awards for his important work.
- In 1998, he received the Swiss Marcel Benoist Prize.
- He was also awarded the Prix Jules Janssen from the French Astronomical Society in 1998.
- In 2000, he received the Balzan Prize.
- Four years later, he was given the Albert Einstein Medal.
- In 2005, he shared the Shaw Prize in Astronomy with American astrophysicist Geoffrey Marcy.
- He was also made a knight of the French Legion d'Honneur in 2004.
Mayor co-wrote a book in French called Les Nouveaux mondes du Cosmos (The New Worlds of the Cosmos). This book won the "Livre de l'astronomie 2001" prize.
He has also received honorary doctorate degrees from eight different universities around the world. These degrees recognize his great achievements.
An asteroid, 125076 Michelmayor, was named after him in 2013. It was discovered by another Swiss astronomer, Michel Ory.
In 2015, he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences. In 2017, he was awarded the Wolf Prize in Physics. Finally, in 2019, he and Didier Queloz shared half of the Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of the exoplanet 51 Pegasi b.
Working with Others: Professional Groups
Michel Mayor has been a part of many important scientific groups and committees. He has helped organize courses for astronomers and served on the editorial board of a science magazine. He was also involved with the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which is a group of astronomers from all over the world. He served as president of the IAU's commission on extra-solar planets.
He is also an honorary member of several important scientific academies, including the French Academy of Sciences, the Royal Astronomical Society (UK), the National Academy of Sciences (US), and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
See also
In Spanish: Michel Mayor para niños
