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) 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 Gustave Édouard Mayor (French pronunciation:[miʃɛlmajɔʁ]; born 12 January 1942)[1] is a Swiss astrophysicist and professor emeritus at the University of Geneva's Department of Astronomy.[2] He formally retired in 2007, but remains active as a researcher at the Observatory of Geneva. He is co-laureate of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics along with Jim Peebles and Didier Queloz,[3] and the winner of the 2010 Viktor Ambartsumian International Prize[4] and the 2015 Kyoto Prize.
Together with Didier Queloz in 1995, he discovered 51 Pegasi b, the first extrasolar planet orbiting a sun-like star, 51 Pegasi.[5] For this achievement, they were awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star"[6] resulting in "contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the universe and Earth’s place in the cosmos".[7]
Related to the discovery, Mayor noted that humans will never migrate to such exoplanets since they are "much, much too far away ... [and would take] hundreds of millions of days using the means we have available today".[8] However, due to discoveries by Mayor, searching for extraterrestrial communications from exoplanets may now be a more practical consideration than thought earlier.[9]
Mayor holds MS in Physics from the University of Lausanne (1966) and PhD in Astronomy from the Geneva Observatory (1971). He was a researcher at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge in 1971. Subsequently, he spent sabbatical semesters at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in northern Chile and at the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawaiʻi System.[10]
^"Conference du 26 Septembre 2007" (in French). Cercle des amities internationales, Geneve. September 2007. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
^Cite error: The named reference MPC-object was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Chang, Kenneth; Specia, Megan (8 October 2019). "Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded for Cosmic Discoveries". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 8 October 2019. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
^"Viktor Ambartsumian International Prize". Vaprize.sci.am. 18 July 2014. Archived from the original on 14 September 2016. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
^Mayor, Michel; Queloz, Didier (November 1995). "A Jupiter-mass companion to a solar-type star". Nature. 378 (6555): 355–359. Bibcode:1995Natur.378..355M. doi:10.1038/378355a0. S2CID 4339201.
^"The Nobel Prize in Physics 2019". Nobel Media AB. Archived from the original on 10 October 2019. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
^Wenz, John (10 October 2019). "Lessons from scorching hot weirdo-planets". Knowable Magazine. Annual Reviews. doi:10.1146/knowable-101019-2. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
^Cite error: The named reference PHY-20191009 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference NBC-20191009 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Michel Mayor". The Planetary Society. Archived from the original on 8 August 2019. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
Michel Gustave Édouard Mayor (French pronunciation: [miʃɛl majɔʁ]; born 12 January 1942) is a Swiss astrophysicist and professor emeritus at the University...
Cambridge, as well as a professor at the University of Geneva. Together with MichelMayor in 1995, he discovered 51 Pegasi b, the first extrasolar planet orbiting...
of the host star. The planet was originally designated 51 Pegasi b by MichelMayor and Didier Queloz, who discovered the planet in 1995. The following year...
theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology. He shared the prize with MichelMayor and Didier Queloz for their discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a sun-like...
festival program were anthropologist Jane Goodall, Nobel Prize winners MichelMayor, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Kip Thorne, and former astronauts Charlie...
Rohrer, Richard Ernst, Edmond Fischer, Rolf Zinkernagel, Didier Queloz, MichelMayor, Kurt Wüthrich, and Jacques Dubochet have received nobel prizes in the...
orbiting an ordinary main-sequence star occurred on 6 October 1995, when MichelMayor and Didier Queloz of the University of Geneva announced the detection...
(Arabic: عمر الشريف Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [ˈʕomɑɾ eʃʃɪˈɾiːf], born Michel Yusef Dimitri Chalhoub [miˈʃel dɪˈmitɾi ʃælˈhuːb]; 10 April 1932 – 10 July...
thought that science inspired art, and art inspired science". In 2010, MichelMayor, Nobel laureate in Physics, Israelian, and Nuno Santos were awarded the...
working at UNIGE including the discoveries of extrasolar planets by MichelMayor, and of quantum teleportation by Nicolas Gisin. The University of Geneva...
Michel Eyquem, Seigneur de Montaigne (/mɒnˈteɪn/ mon-TAYN; French: [miʃɛl ekɛm də mɔ̃tɛɲ]; 28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592), commonly known as Michel...
city councillor in Wavre in 2000, and in 2006 became mayor of the city. In December 2007, Michel became the Minister of Development Cooperation in the...
a Ukrainian businessman and politician who served as Mayor of Hlukhiv from 2015 to 2020. Michel Robert Gerard Tereshchenko was born on 15 September 1954...
was re-elected borough mayor of Saint-Léonard under Équipe Denis Coderre. National Assembly of Quebec Politics of Quebec Michel Bissonnet doit confirmer...
discovered orbiting the star HD 80606 in April 2001 by a team led by MichelMayor and Didier Queloz. With a mass 4 times that of Jupiter, it is a gas giant...
bacteriologist Auguste Piccard (1884–1962), physicist, inventor and explorer MichelMayor (born 1942), astrophysicist, winner of the 2015 Kyoto Prize and co-laureate...
by Stephen Thorsett and his collaborators in 1993. On 6 October 1995, MichelMayor and Didier Queloz of the University of Geneva announced the first definitive...
star. The planet was discovered by an Observatory of Geneva team led by MichelMayor, using the HARPS instrument on the European Southern Observatory 3.6 m...
Michel Buillard (born 9 September 1950) is a French Polynesian politician and former Cabinet Minister. Since 1995 he has served as the mayor of Papeete...
Michael Rosbash, Michael W. Young, Kip Thorne, Rainer Weiss, Jim Peebles, MichelMayor, Reinhard Genzel, and David Julius - are Shaw Laureates. The inaugural...
Yves Michel (18 July 1920 – 15 November 1983) was a French politician. Michel was the mayor of Plouescat from 1971 to 1976. After the death of Antoine...
Other winners have included computer scientist Niklaus Wirth, astronomer MichelMayor, and cardiologist Max Holzmann. As of 2019[update], eleven Marcel Benoist...
organic life was found on an extrasolar planet. HD 40307: On June 16, MichelMayor announced a planetary system with three super-Earths orbiting this K-type...
detect Jupiter's influence on the Sun. Using this instrument, astronomers MichelMayor and Didier Queloz identified 51 Pegasi b, a "Hot Jupiter" in the constellation...
the IAU Catalog of Star Names. On October 6, 1995, Swiss astronomers MichelMayor and Didier Queloz announced the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting 51...
Literature – Peter Handke Peace – Abiy Ahmed Physics – James Peebles, MichelMayor, and Didier Queloz Physiology or Medicine – William Kaelin Jr., Peter...
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