Pilar Ruiz-Lapuente facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Pilar Ruiz-Lapuente
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Ruiz-Lapuente in 2013
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| Born | 18 May 1964 |
| Alma mater |
Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics European Southern Observatory |
| Known for | Study of astronomy |
Pilar Ruiz-Lapuente was born in 1964 in Barcelona, Spain. She is a brilliant astrophysicist, which is a scientist who studies space and the universe. Today, she works as a professor at the University of Barcelona.
Pilar Ruiz-Lapuente is famous for her research on special star explosions called type Ia supernovae. She also led a team that looked for a star connected to a supernova seen by Tycho Brahe way back in 1572. Her work on these supernovae helped scientists discover that our universe is actually expanding faster and faster!
Contents
Becoming a Scientist
Pilar Ruiz-Lapuente loved science from a young age. She studied Physics at the University of Barcelona. After that, she continued her studies to earn her doctorate. She did this at the University of Barcelona, the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, and the European Southern Observatory.
Later, she became a research fellow at the Center for Astrophysics, which is part of Harvard & Smithsonian. This meant she got to do important research there. By 2012, she was a professor at the University of Barcelona. She taught in the Department of Astronomy and Meteorology.
Discovering the Accelerating Universe
One of Pilar Ruiz-Lapuente's biggest achievements was being part of the Supernova Cosmology Project. In 1998, her team and another group of scientists made an amazing discovery. They found out that the universe is not just expanding, but it's speeding up! This was a huge surprise to everyone.
How They Made the Discovery
The teams figured this out by carefully studying Type Ia supernovae. These are very bright star explosions that always have the same brightness. This makes them like "standard candles" in space. Scientists can use them to measure huge distances.
When they looked at these supernovae, they saw that distant ones were dimmer than expected. This meant the universe was expanding faster than they thought. To explain this speed-up, scientists came up with the idea of dark energy. Dark energy is a mysterious force that seems to be pushing the universe apart.
Pilar Ruiz-Lapuente explained her part in this work. She used telescopes in the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in the Canary Islands. She watched for new supernovae and studied their light. Her team would take pictures of the sky. Then, about two weeks later, they would take more pictures. By comparing them, they could spot new supernovae and learn about them.
Awards for the Discovery
Because of this incredible discovery, Pilar Ruiz-Lapuente and her colleagues received many important awards. They won the 2007 Gruber Prize in Cosmology. They also received the 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.
The research she helped with also led to a Nobel Prize for her team's leader, Saul Perlmutter. He shared the prize with the directors of the other research team.
Important Writings
Pilar Ruiz-Lapuente has written many scientific articles. By 2012, she had written over 130 articles for science journals. Some of her work has been published in very famous journals like Nature and Science.
She also wrote a book called "El enigma de la realidad. Las entidades de la física de Aristóteles a Einstein." This book explores the mysteries of reality and physics.
See also
In Spanish: Pilar Ruiz-Lapuente para niños
