Some of the brightest minds on Earth will talk to astronauts on the International Space Station about their perspective of the Universe, exoplanets and the challenges of spacewalking.
During the live call from space, three 2019 Nobel Prize Laureates will discuss with the astronauts from the Nobel Prize Museum. ESA astronaut Christer Fuglesang will moderate the conversation between two of the Nobel Prize laureates in physics, Didier Queloz and Michel Mayor, and the Nobel Prize laureate in chemistry, Stanley Whittingham.
Their discoveries are crucial to the work taking place on the International Space Station.
This year the Nobel Prize in Physics rewards new understanding of the Universe’s structure and history, and the first discovery of a planet orbiting a solar-type star outside our Solar System. Cosmology and exoplanets are among the key themes investigated by ESA’s space science missions, with exoplanet hunter Cheops launching later this year.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry rewards the development of the powerful lithium ion battery. Jessica will recount first-hand how she helped install new lithium-ion batteries during her recent spacewalk to improve the Station’s power capacity following spacewalks with ESA astronauts Tim Peake and Thomas Pesquet on other spacewalks to upgrade to lithium-ion batteries.
Luca is deeply involved in several challenging spacewalks to service the International Space Station’s largest scientific instrument. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) is a sub-atomic particle detector that looks for dark matter, antimatter and measures cosmic rays – high energy particles that travel through space at close to the speed of light.
The European astronaut has carried out two spacewalks to date to maintain AMS-02’s cooling system and ensure it can continue to provide more groundbreaking science to the scientific community for and its principal investigator, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Samuel Ting.
All the Nobel Prize Laureates of 2019, who will visit the museum the same morning, are invited to the event. Members of the Nobel committees and general public will be part of the audience.