Physics Nobel awarded for discoveries about the universe’s evolution and exoplanets

Three scientists win for revealing the cosmic makeup and finding a planet orbiting a sunlike star

Didier Queloz, Michel Mayor, James Peebles
Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics for revealing hidden aspects of the cosmos. James Peebles of Princeton University (right) studied the structure and evolution of the universe. And Michel Mayor of the University of Geneva (center) and Didier Queloz of the University of Geneva and the University of Cambridge (left) identified the first exoplanet orbiting a sunlike star.

From left: University of Cambridge; Courtesy of Inamori Foundation; Torbjörn Zadia/ROYAL SWEDISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Two sets of cosmic discoveries have garnered the 2019 Nobel Prize in physics.