A Physics Nobel for seeking our place in the universe
It was Oct. 6, 1995, in Florence, Italy. The conference was wrapping up, and the tone in the room was subdued, recalls Natalie Batalha. As a graduate student studying sun spots at the time, Dr. Batalha selected a seat at the back for the afternoon panel. She saw just one TV camera there to document the occasion. So when a Swiss astronomer who wasn’t on the schedule stepped up to speak, the gravity of his announcement didn’t sink in immediately.
“Maybe I was just too young and naive,” she recalls. “I couldn’t even imagine how that discovery would change the course of my career. It did in a very dramatic way.”
That day in Florence, Michel Mayor announced
Written in the starsStrange new worldsWhere we fit inA head for heights