Nobel Fisika 2011

Salam fisika !

Beberapa waktu yang lalu tepatnya pada tanggal 4 Oktober 2011 Badan Nobel Internasional, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences memberikan penghargaan Nobel di bidang fisika kepada tiga ilmuwan peneliti Supernova. Penghargaan ini diberikan atas dedikasi dan penemuannya yang mengejutkan dunia. Berikut adalah pernyataan resminya sebagaimana yang dilansir fisikanet.lipi.go.id :

Press Release
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
4 October 2011

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2011



with one half to

Saul Perlmutter
The Supernova Cosmology Project
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California,
Berkeley, CA, USA

and the other half jointly to

Brian P. Schmidt
The High-z Supernova Search Team
Australian National University,
Weston Creek, Australia

and

Adam G. Riess
The High-z Supernova Search Team
Johns Hopkins University and Space Telescope Science Institute,
Baltimore, MD, USA

"for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae"

Written in the stars

"Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice..." *
What will be the final destiny of the Universe? Probably it will end in ice, if we are to believe this year's Nobel Laureates in Physics. They have studied several dozen exploding stars, called supernovae, and discovered that the Universe is expanding at an ever-accelerating rate. The discovery came as a complete surprise even to the Laureates themselves.

In 1998, cosmology was shaken at its foundations as two research teams presented their findings. Headed by Saul Perlmutter, one of the teams had set to work in 1988. Brian Schmidt headed another team, launched at the end of 1994, where Adam Riess was to play a crucial role.

The research teams raced to map the Universe by locating the most distant supernovae. More sophisticated telescopes on the ground and in space, as well as more powerful computers and new digital imaging sensors (CCD, Nobel Prize in Physics in 2009), opened the possibility in the 1990s to add more pieces to the cosmological puzzle.

The teams used a particular kind of supernova, called type Ia supernova. It is an explosion of an old compact star that is as heavy as the Sun but as small as the Earth. A single such supernova can emit as much light as a whole galaxy. All in all, the two research teams found over 50 distant supernovae whose light was weaker than expected - this was a sign that the expansion of the Universe was accelerating. The potential pitfalls had been numerous, and the scientists found reassurance in the fact that both groups had reached the same astonishing conclusion.

For almost a century, the Universe has been known to be expanding as a consequence of the Big Bang about 14 billion years ago. However, the discovery that this expansion is accelerating is astounding. If the expansion will continue to speed up the Universe will end in ice.

The acceleration is thought to be driven by dark energy, but what that dark energy is remains an enigma - perhaps the greatest in physics today. What is known is that dark energy constitutes about three quarters of the Universe. Therefore the findings of the 2011 Nobel Laureates in Physics have helped to unveil a Universe that to a large extent is unknown to science. And everything is possible again.

Seperti halnya Nobel Kedokteran 2011, penerima Nobel Fisika tahun ini juga dibagi tiga ilmuwan, yaitu Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt, dan Adam Riess. Mereka mendapat hadiah Nobel sebesar US$ 1,4 juta atas penemuan alam semesta yang berkembang semakin cepat.
 
Perlmutter (52) adalah kepala Proyek Kosmologi Supernova di Universitas California, Berkeley, sementara Schmidt (44) adalah kepala Tim Pencarian Supernova High-z di Universitas Nasional Australia, Weston Creek, Australia. Adapun Riess (42) adalah profesor astronomi di Universitas Johns Hopkins dan Space Telescope Science Institute Baltimore, Maryland.
 
Pada tahun 1998 kosmologi terguncang. Dua tim peneliti mempresentasikan temuan mereka. Dia adalah Saul Perlmutter salah satu peminmpin tim yang telah mulai bekerja pada tahun 1988. Brian Schmidt yang juga memimpin tim lain, diluncurkan pada akhir 1994, dan Adam Riess dimana beliau memainkan peran penting dalam penelitian tersebut.
 
Hasil tersebut mengejutkan dunia kosmologi karena mengungkap bahwa semakin besar jarak alam semesta yang dilihat semakin cepat galaksi-galaksi menjauh. Mereka menemukan bahwa cahaya yang dipancarkan oleh lebih dari 50 supernova yang jauh, lebih lemah dari yang diharapkan. Dan itu menjadi tanda bahwa alam semesta mengembang semakin cepat.
 
Percepatan ini dianggap didorong oleh energi gelap, tapi bahwa apa sebenarnya energi gelap tersebut tetap merupakan sebuah teka-teki - mungkin yang terbesar dalam fisika saat ini. Apa yang saat ini diketahui hanyalah energi gelap memenuhi sekitar tiga perempat dari alam semesta. Oleh karena itu temuan pemenang Nobel Fisika 2011 ini telah membantu mengungkap alam semesta yang sebagian besar tidak diketahui dalam ilmu pengetahuan. 



Semoga di masa mendatang ilmuwan Indonesia jua bisa meraih Nobel di bidang fisika. Amin

Referensi :
CRI Online, 2011-10-05
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Press Release, 4 October 2011
Suara Merdeka, 5 Oktober 2011