Michel Mayor's reaction on finding out Nobel Prize win is priceless

Three days ago on October 8, the winners of this years Nobel Prize in Physics were announced. One half of the award went to James Peebles, the Albert Einstein Professor Emeritus of Science at Princeton University,  for “theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology” and the other half was jointly shared between Michel Mayor, Professor Emeritus at the University of Geneva's Department of Astronomy,  and fellow Professor Didier Queloz.

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Professor Mayor overwhelmed 

Winning the Nobel Prize in Physics is a massive achievement for particularly anyone in the field, and there were no words to describe what Professor Mayor felt when he got to know that he had won the award. Mayor states that he was leaving his hotel in San Sebastian in Basque Country, Spain when he “by chance” opened up his laptop to the news of him winning the award. The image of his reaction looking at all the messages flowing in while the Nobel Laureate is waiting for his flight at the San Sebastian Airport has gone viral on social media.

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'A long, long period of work'

The Nobel Prize in Physics winner told reporters after arriving at Madrid airport in Spain that the award follows “a long, long period of work, with colleagues. It’s a huge honour.” Mayor, 77, and Didier Queloz, 53, were honoured for the discovery of an exoplanet — a planet outside our solar system that orbits a sun-like star. Mayor stated that it could help us figure out whether life exists elsewhere in the universe. Mayor says that “maybe we can discover some form of life, we don’t know what kind of form.” He says scientists have now identified more than 4,000 exoplanets. Mayor says scientists “are absolutely certain that a lot of these planets have good conditions for life.” Mayor was scheduled to speak later this week at scientific events in Spain.

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(With inputs from AP)