Thread by @ESO

1/ Michel Mayor & Didier Queloz have been awarded the #NobelPrize2019 in Physics for the discovery of the first exoplanet around a Sun-like star.
eso.org/public/announc…

2/ The discovery of exoplanet #51Pegasib was announced on 6 October 1995 by Mayor and Queloz, who detected it using the ELODIE spectrograph at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence in France.

3/ The discovery revolutionised astronomy, initiating an entirely new field and new instruments focused on finding and characterising exoplanets.

4/ The success of ELODIE led to the construction of CORALIE, an improved version of ELODIE mounted on the 1.2-m Swiss Euler Telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile.

5/ Knowledge gained from building and operating these two instruments was put in the development of the #HARPS spectrograph at La Silla, which began operations in 2003.

6/ The light from #51Pegasib was recently observed by HARPS, which performed the first-ever spectroscopic detection of visible light reflected off an exoplanet.

7/ “ESO celebrates that two outstanding members of its scientific community, with very strong commitment to ESO, and very successful use of our facilities, have been given this well-deserved recognition, "says ESO Director General @xBarcons

8. In 1996, ESO commemorated Mayor and Queloz’s groundbreaking 1995 paper by placing it in a time capsule that is still buried in the wall of the #VLT enclosure.