By Vienna Ma
Australian experts and Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Wednesday congratulated Nobel Prize winner Brian Schmidt, saying that the discovery changed the face of astronomy and mankind's understanding of the universe.
Australian National University's (ANU's) astronomer Brian Schmidt has been named a joint winner of the 2011 Nobel physics prize for his research into supernovae. He shared the award with Americans Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess.
Professor Suzanne Cory, President of the Australian Academy of Science said this discovery had a profound and immediate effect on cosmology.
"Previously it had been thought that the expansion of the universe was slowing, or proceeding at a steady rate," he told Xinhua in an email note on Wednesday.
"Astrophysicists say the finding that the expansion is in fact accelerating has completely altered our understanding of the universe and opened up important new fields in the study of time and dark energy."
Meanwhile, ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Young congratulated Schmidt, saying his research had "changed the face of astronomy".
He said the Nobel Prize winning work has helped unveil a universe that, to a large extent, was unknown to science, and that "he has shown that what we see in the skies is but a tiny fraction of what is really out there. Brian reminds us of the infinite mysteries yet to be understood."
The breakthrough came in 1998, when one research team headed by Professor Perlmutter and another led by Professor Schmidt and accompanied by Professor Riess reached the same astounding conclusion that the expansion of the universe was rapidly accelerating.
Scientists have known since the 1920s that the universe is expanding, as a result of the Big Bang some 14 billion years ago. But the discovery that this process is accelerating, and not slowing as many thought, shocked the research community.
The acceleration is thought to be driven by dark energy, and the Nobel Committee for Physics at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said if the expansion continues to speed up, the universe will end in ice, and that the scientists' discovery had changed mankind's understanding of the universe.
Professor Schmidt said the teams' finding came from one of the greatest scientists of all time, Albert Einstein, who said if the universe was full of energy, gravity would push rather than pull. "We think of Nobel prizes as being a personal achievement, but really it's a celebration, I think, of astronomy and the science that's been going on for 100 years," Professor Schmidt told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.
"So it would seem that by discovering an accelerating universe, our team actually discovered 75 percent of the universe as this new magical stuff we call dark energy."
Professor Schmidt said at first, the discovery seemed too crazy to be true.
"We ended up telling the world we have this crazy result, the universe is speeding up," Professor Schmidt said. "It seemed too crazy to be right and I think we were a little scared."
Prime Minister Julia Gillard congratulated Nobel Prize winner Brian Schmidt, saying the award would make Australians proud of their researchers.
Gillard said with only 0.3 percent of the world's population, Australia produced three percent of its knowledge, and "as this recognition shows, a lot of that is absolutely world-class."
Professor Bryan Gaensler, Australian Laureate Fellow at the University of Sydney, described Schmidt's work as "jaw dropping".
"The Nobel Prize often goes to what might seem to the general public to be an obscure or technical discovery," Gaensler, who is also director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics said in a statement released on Tuesday.
"But in 2011, the Nobel Prize for Physics has recognized one of the most jaw-dropping, unexpected, craziest results in the history of science - the universe is accelerating."
Professor Schmidt, who also receives a share of the 1.5 million U.S. dollars prize money, will receive his award in Stockholm of Sweden in December. He said he plans to put the prize money to " some sort of public good" after consulting members of his team.