Cambridge planet hunter wins Nobel Prize in physics

A CAMBRIDGE University planet hunter yesterday said mankind could detect alien life within the next 30 years, after winning the Nobel Prize.

Didier Queloz, who as a PHD student discovered the first planet outside our solar system, said he is “convinced” by the existence of extraterrestrial life.

The 52-year-old Swiss astronomer is one of three to share this year’s £740,000 physics prize, 24 years and the discovery of more than 4,000 new “exoplanets” after his original breakthrough.

There are now more than 100 celestial objects named after him.

Speaking in London yesterday, he said: “I can’t believe we are the only living entity in the universe. There are just way too many planets, way too many stars, and the chemistry is universal. The chemistry that led to life has to happen elsewhere.”

Prof Queloz, who has worked at the University of Cambridge since 2013, said he was certain that alien life will have been detected from Earth within 100 years.

But he added it is “realistic” that a new machine capable of better understanding any biochemical activity taking place on exoplanets could be built within 30 years.

He revealed that his day had started badly, with punctured bicycle tyre followed by a tense fundraising meeting in which he ignored the call from the Nobel committee informing him of his life-changing win.

The father was eventually informed by university staff, at which point he “blacked out” for two minutes.

The 1995 discovery of 51 Pegasi b, a gaseous ball comparable with Jupiter, sparked a revolution in astronomy and a new field that is now considered the best hope for detecting alien life.

Prof Queloz shares this year’s physics award with James Peebles, a Canadian scientist, and Michael Mayor, who was Queloz’s PHD supervisor.