Cos’è l’energia oscura? Attualmente solo una chiara evidenza della nostra scarsa conoscenza di quale “fisica” regoli veramente l’universo… Ma Perlmutter non è il genio o il nuovo Einstein che la spiegherà… è solo un altro dei tanti uomini (e delle poche donne) mirabili che hanno lavorato e stanno lavorando per spianare la strada verso quella comprensione.

More info on Saul here below (source nobelprize.org)

Life

Saul Perlmutter grew up outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents were professors of chemical and biomolecular engineering and social work administration, respectively. After studying at Harvard University, Perlmutter received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 1986. He conducted his Nobel Prize-awarded research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Saul Perlmutter is a co-founder of the Supernova Cosmology Project and a Professor of Physics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is married with one daughter. (1)

Work

The universe’s stars and galaxies are moving away from one another; the universe is expanding. Up until recently, the majority of astrophysicists believed that this expansion would eventually wane, due to the effect of opposing gravitational forces. Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt, and Adam Riess studied exploding stars, called supernovae. Because the light emitted by stars appears weaker from a larger distance and takes on a reddish hue as it moves further from the observer, the researchers were able to determine how the supernovae moved. In 1998 they reached a surprising result: the universe is expanding at an ever-increasing rate.

(1) Da notarsi però – sempre relativamente alla mia eroica campagna contro la superstizione e a favore dell’istruzione prescolare – che i genitori non erano tenutari di un oratorio né gli hanno imposto di imparare ridicolissime preci a memoria: riesci a individuare il nesso o ti serve un insegnante di sostegno per capirlo?