Age, Biography and Wiki
Michel Mayor (Michel Gustave Édouard Mayor) was born on 12 January, 1942 in Lausanne, Switzerland, is a Swiss astrophysicist & Nobel laureate of Physics. Discover Michel Mayor's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Learn How rich is he in this year and how he spends money? Also learn how he earned most of networth at the age of 82 years old?
Popular As |
Michel Gustave Édouard Mayor |
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N/A |
Age |
82 years old |
Zodiac Sign |
Capricorn |
Born |
12 January 1942 |
Birthday |
12 January |
Birthplace |
Lausanne, Switzerland |
Nationality |
Switzerland
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We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 12 January.
He is a member of famous with the age 82 years old group.
Michel Mayor Height, Weight & Measurements
At 82 years old, Michel Mayor height not available right now. We will update Michel Mayor's Height, weight, Body Measurements, Eye Color, Hair Color, Shoe & Dress size soon as possible.
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Dating & Relationship status
He is currently single. He is not dating anyone. We don't have much information about He's past relationship and any previous engaged. According to our Database, He has no children.
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Michel Mayor Net Worth
His net worth has been growing significantly in 2023-2024. So, how much is Michel Mayor worth at the age of 82 years old? Michel Mayor’s income source is mostly from being a successful . He is from Switzerland. We have estimated Michel Mayor's net worth, money, salary, income, and assets.
Net Worth in 2024 |
$1 Million - $5 Million |
Salary in 2024 |
Under Review |
Net Worth in 2023 |
Pending |
Salary in 2023 |
Under Review |
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Not Available |
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Michel Mayor Social Network
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Timeline
Michel Gustave Édouard Mayor (born 12 January 1942) is a Swiss astrophysicist and professor emeritus at the University of Geneva's Department of Astronomy.
Mayor holds MS in Physics from the University of Lausanne (1966) and PhD in Astronomy from the Geneva Observatory (1971).
Following preliminary work by Roger Griffin in 1967 to show the feasibility of photoelectric measurements of radial velocities, Mayor worked with André Baranne at the Marseille Observatory to develop CORAVEL, a photoelectric spectrometer capable of highly accurate radial velocity measurements, which allow measurement of star movements, orbital periods of binary stars, and even the rotational speed of stars.
This research led to various fields of interest, including the study of statistical characteristics of solar-type binary stars.
He was a researcher at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge in 1971.
Subsequently, he spent sabbatical semesters at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in northern Chile and at the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawaiʻi System.
From 1971 to 1984, Mayor worked as a research associate at the Observatory of Geneva, which is home to the astronomy department of the University of Geneva.
He became an associate professor at the university in 1984.
In 1988, the university named him a full professor, a position he held until his retirement in 2007.
With fellow researcher Antoine Duquennoy, they examined the radial velocities of several systems believed to be binary stars in 1991.
Their results found that a subset of these may in fact be single star systems with substellar secondary objects.
Desiring more accurate radial velocity measurements, Mayor, along with Baranne at Marseille, and with graduate student Didier Queloz, developed Elodie, a new spectrograph based on the work of CORAVEL, which was estimated to have an accuracy of 15 m/s for bright stars, improving upon the 1 km/s from CORAVEL.
Elodie was developed with the specific intent to determine if the substellar secondary objects were brown dwarf stars or potentially giant planets.
By 1994, Elodie was operational at Geneva and Mayor and Queloz began their survey of Sun-like systems with suspected substellar secondary objects.
Together with Didier Queloz in 1995, he discovered 51 Pegasi b, the first extrasolar planet orbiting a sun-like star, 51 Pegasi.
In July 1995, the pair's survey of 51 Pegasi affirmed that there was an exoplanet orbiting it, identified as 51 Pegasi b, which was later classified as a hot-Jupiter–type planet.
This was the first exoplanet to be found orbiting a main-sequence star, as opposed to planets that orbited the remains of a star.
Mayor's and Queloz's discovery of an exoplanet launched great interest is searching for other exoplanets since.
On 21st March 2022, the 5000th exoplanet beyond our solar system was confirmed.
Mayor's work focused more on improving instrumentation for radial velocity measurements to improve detecting exoplanets and measuring their properties.
Mayor was director of the Observatory of Geneva from 1998 to 2004.
He is a professor emeritus at the University of Geneva.
Mayor's research interests include extrasolar planets (also known as exoplanets), instrumentation, statistical properties of double stars, globular cluster dynamics, galactic structure and kinematics.
Mayor's doctoral thesis at the University of Geneva was devoted to the spiral structure of galaxies.
During his time as a research associate, there had been strong interest in developing photoelectric-based Doppler spectrometers to obtain more accurate measurements of radial velocities of stellar objects compared to existing photographic methods.
In 1998, Mayor was awarded the Swiss Marcel Benoist Prize in recognition of his work and its significance for human life.
He received the Prix Jules Janssen from the Société astronomique de France (French Astronomical Society) in 1998.
In 2000, he was awarded the Balzan Prize.
Mayor led a team to further improve Elodie to increase velocity measurement accuracy to 1 m/s via the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) installed on the ESO 3.6 m Telescope at La Silla Observatory in Chile by 2003.
Mayor led the team that used HARPS to seek out other exoplanets.
As of 2003, he was a member of the board of trustees.
He formally retired in 2007, but remains active as a researcher at the Observatory of Geneva.
In 2007, Mayor was one of 11 European scientists who discovered Gliese 581c, the first extrasolar planet in a star's habitable zone, from the ESO telescope.
In 2009, Mayor and his team discovered the lightest exoplanet ever detected around a main sequence star: Gliese 581e.
Nonetheless, Mayor noted that humans will never migrate to such exoplanets since they are "much, much too far away ... [and would take] hundreds of millions of days using the means we have available today".
However, due to discoveries by Mayor, searching for extraterrestrial communications from exoplanets may now be a more practical consideration than thought earlier.
For this achievement, they were awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star" resulting in "contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the universe and Earth’s place in the cosmos".
Related to the discovery, Mayor noted that humans will never migrate to such exoplanets since they are "much, much too far away ... [and would take] hundreds of millions of days using the means we have available today".
However, due to discoveries by Mayor, searching for extraterrestrial communications from exoplanets may now be a more practical consideration than thought earlier.