Nobel Prize in physics awarded for the discovery that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating

Saul Perlmutter, Adam Riess and Brian Schmidt have been awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for the discovery that our Universe\’s expansion is accelerating.The red shift of supernovas were studied and it was found that more distant supernovas were speeding up relative to closer ones. This phenomenon could possibly be explained by the existance of dark energy which acts in opposition to gravity and drives the expansion. More information on this can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science- environment-15165371 and http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2011/. This theme of the Nobel prize will feature in a future issue of YSJ which discusses the Nobel Laureate meetings at  Lindau.