https://doi.org/10.1140/epjh/e2018-80063-1
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: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view 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.
The text presented here has been revised by the authors based on the original oral history interview conducted by Davide Cenadelli and recorded in English at the Observatory of Geneva, Switzerland, January 2016.
© EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag 2018
