Oral history interview

Exoplanets – the beginning of a new era in astrophysics^★

A protagonist’s perspective

¹ Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, 51 ch. des Maillettes, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland
² Osservatorio Astronomico della Regione Autonoma Valle d’Aosta, Loc. Lignan 39, 11020 Nus, AO, Italy

^a e-mail: davide.cenadelli@unimi.it

Received: 27 November 2017
Received in final form: 8 January 2018
Published online: 10 April 2018

Abstract

This oral history interview touches upon important topics like the dynamics of the discovery, in 1995, of 51 Pegasi b – the first extrasolar planet ever found around a normal star other than the Sun – the development of better and better equipment that made it possible, the importance it had in shaping a new community of scholars dealing with this new field of research, and, more at large, the cultural importance it had in overturning our view of the cosmos.