Three starry-eyed winners of Nobel physics prize

The Nobel Prize for Physics has been won by three Americans for their work mapping the universe. Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt and Adam Riess have spent years studying exploding stars called supernovae, discovering – among many other things – that the universe is expanding at an ever-increasing rate.

Perlmutter headed one team that began work in 1988.

Riess and Schmidt, who is a dual citizen of Australia, were in charge of another team that started six years later in 1994.

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 physics prize is the second Nobel to be announced this year, after the prize in medicine which was announced on Monday.

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