95% of universe still a mystery: Nobel laureate

Mohali, October 10

Evolution of mankind in this universe has been possible only because we have the ability to ask questions. As a student you should never give up the unique learning tool of being inquisitive or being curious. Like universe, our life is full of unsolved mysteries and hence the right way of learning is to try and find the solutions of such problems or mysteries.

This was stated by Nobel laureate and astrophysicist Sir Michael Mayor while addressing students during the annual convocation of Chandigarh University, Gharuan, here today.

The 80-year-old, a well-known scientist not only for his achievement but his desire to promote scientific temper among the students, said, “We have to understand that technology has helped us reach the current position. No matter how advanced we are today, it is because of the ancient technologies developed by the scientists in the early ages of mankind that we have been able to make advancements in every field of sciences.”

He added that, “In my field of astrophysics, it is because of technology that we know some of the wonders in our universe. In my view we have been able to know five per cent about the universe while 95 per cent is still a mystery, which also means that there is lot potential for the young and budding students like you to explore in the sky.”

More than 890 students of sciences and computer application programmes received their degrees during the convocation. Sixteen toppers of various disciplines were awarded gold medals by the Nobel laureate. — TNS

The Swiss astrophysicist

Sir Michel Mayor is a Swiss astrophysicist and professor emeritus at the University of Geneva’s Department of Astronomy. He is co-laureate of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics along with Jim Peebles and Didier Queloz. In 1995, Mayor and Didier Queloz discovered a planet outside our solar system, an exoplanet, orbiting the solar-type star 51 Pegasi. The scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize “for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star” resulting in “contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the universe and Earth’s place in the cosmos.” Nearly 4,000 exoplanets have been found since then.

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