MERIGNAC (France), Oct 8:

The Rafale multi-role fighterjets will boost India's air domi-nance exponentially, DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh saidTuesday as he formally tookdelivery of the first of the 36long-awaited French-made air-craft acquired by the Indian AirForce at a ceremony here.

Singh attended the handoverceremony along with his Frenchcounterpart Florence Parly ataircraft maker Dassault Aviationfacility in Merignac, southwest-ern France.

The Minister performed aShastra Puja on the new aircraftas he emblazoned it with an'Om' tilak and laid flowers and acoconut, just before he was totake off in it for a sortie in thenewly-acquired two-seater jet.

Singh, who changed intocombat flight gear for the sortieafter Puja, said the aircraft willenhance the Indian Air Forcecombat capability massively --intended only for self-defence.

"We do not purchase armsand other defence equipments tothreaten any country but toincrease our capabilities andstrengthen our defences," 68-year-old Singh said.

"I had never imagined that Iwould be flown at supersonicspeed; a very comfortable andsmooth flight during which Iwas able to observe the manycapabilities of the jet, its air-to-air and air-to-ground combatcapabilities," he said, describinghis sortie as a memorable andonce in a lifetime experience.

On September 19, Singhflew in the Tejas fighter aircraftfrom the HAL airport inBengaluru, becoming the firstdefence minister to fly in theindigenously-built light combataircraft.

"Our Air Force is the fourth-largest in the world and I believethat the Rafale Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft will make

us even stronger and will give aboost to India's air dominanceexponentially to ensure peaceand security in the region,"Singh said, addressing the gath-ering here in Hindi.

"I have been told that theFrench word Rafale meansandhi in Hindi or gust of wind. Iam sure that the aircraft will liveup to its name,” he said.

The RB001 Rafale, denoting

the initials of Air Chief MarshalRakesh Bhadauria who played akey role in striking the deal forthe jets in his previous role asIAF deputy chief, was unveiledwith the Indian tricolour as itsbackdrop.

"Today marks a new mile-stone in the Indo-French strate-gic partnership and indeed anew high in the bilateral defencecooperation. Such achievements

encourage us to do more andthat will be on my agenda whenI meet minister Parly today,"

Singh said, in reference to theannual Indo-French DefenceDialgoue scheduled for Tuesdayevening.

"This is a historic and land-mark day for the Indian Armedforces, which reflects thedepth of strategic partnershipbetween India and France.Today marks Vijayadashami –the victory of good over evil –as also the 87th Indian AirForce Day. And therefore asymbolic day in so manyways," he added.

Singh said the strong cooper-ation between India and Francewill continue to grow and con-tribute to global peace, prosper-ity and environmental sustain-ability.

He also said that a largenumber of IAF officers and air-men are being trained in Francefor flying, maintenance supportand logistics for handling Rafaleand hoped the training will helpthem in acquiring knowledgeand professional expertiserequired for performing theirtask in India.(PTI)

STOCKHOLM, Oct 8:

Canadian-American cosmol-ogist James Peebles and Swissastronomers Michel Mayor andDidier Queloz today won theNobel Physics Prize for researchthat increases the understandingof our place in the Universe.

Peebles won one-half of theprize "for theoretical discoveriesthat have contributed to ourunderstanding of how theUniverse evolved after the BigBang," professor GoranHansson, secretary general ofthe Royal Swedish Academy ofSciences, told a press confer-ence.

Mayor and Queloz sharedthe other half for the first dis-covery, in October 1995, of aplanet outside our solar system -- an exoplanet -- orbiting asolar-type star in the Milky Way.

"Their discoveries have for-ever changed our conceptions ofthe world," the jury said.

Developed over two decadessince the mid-1960s, Peebles'theoretical framework is "thebasis of our contemporary ideasabout the Universe."

Peebles built upon AlbertEinstein's work on the origins ofthe Universe by looking back tothe millenia immediately after theBig Bang, when light rays startedto shoot outwards into space.

Using theoretical tools andcalculations, he drew a linkbetween the temperature of theradiation emitted after the BigBang and the amount of matterit created.

His work showed that thematter known to us -- such asstars, planets, and ourselves --only make up five percent,while the other 95 percent aremade up of "unknown dark mat-ter and dark energy".

In a telephone interview at thepress conference, Peebles saidthat what those elements actuallyare is still an open question.

"Although the theory is verythoroughly tested, we still mustadmit that the dark matter anddark energy are mysterious,"Peebles said.

He also advised young peo-ple contemplating a career inscience that, while awards were"charming" and "very muchappreciated, they should do itfor the love of it.

"You should enter sciencebecause you are fascinated by it.That's what I did." Peebles, 84,is Albert Einstein Professor ofScience at Princeton Universityin the United States, whileMayor, 77, and Queloz, 53, areboth professors at the Universityof Geneva. Queloz also works atthe University of Cambridge inBritain.

Using custom-made instru-ments at their observatory insouthern France in October 1995,Mayor and Queloz were able todetect a gaseous ball similar insize to Jupiter, orbiting a star 50light years from our own Sun.

Harnessing a phenomenonknown as the Doppler effect,which changes the colour oflight depending on whether an

object is approaching or retreat-ing from Earth, the pair provedthe planet, known as 51 Pegasusb, was orbiting its star.

The Nobel jury noted thatthe discovery "started a revolu-tion in astronomy" and sincethen over 4,000 exoplanets havebeen found in our home galaxy.

"Strange new worlds are stillbeing discovered," challengingour preconceived ideas aboutplanetary systems and "forcingscientists to revise their theoriesof the physical processes behindthe origins of planets".

In a statement, the twoastronomers hailed their win as"simply extraordinary", sayingthe discovery was "the mostexciting of our careers".

Professor Martin Rees of theUniversity of Cambridge saidthis year's awards also seemedto show a "welcome broadeningof the Nobel criteria."

"In the past, astronomy hasbeen included primarily whenthe discovery involves somenew physics," Rees said.

The prize consists of a goldmedal, a diploma and the sum ofnine million Swedish kronor(about $914,000 or 833,000euros).

The trio will receive theprize from King Carl XVIGustaf at a formal ceremony inStockholm on December 10, the

anniversary of the 1896 death ofscientist Alfred Nobel who cre-ated the prizes in his last willand testament.

In 2018, the honour went toArthur Ashkin of the US, GerardMourou of France and DonnaStrickland of the US for laserinventions used for advancedprecision instruments in correc-tive eye surgery and in industry.

This year's Nobel prize sea-son kicked off on Monday withthe Medicine Prize awarded toAmericans William Kaelin andGregg Semenza, and Britain'sPeter Ratcliffe.

They were honoured forresearch into how human cellssense and adapt to changingoxygen levels, which opens upnew strategies to fight such dis-eases as cancer and anaemia.

The winners of this year'sChemistry Prize will beannounced on Wednesday.

The Literature Prize will fol-low on Thursday, with two lau-reates to be crowned after a sex-ual harassment scandal forcedthe Swedish Academy to post-pone the 2018 award, for thefirst time in 70 years.

On Friday the action movesto Norway where the PeacePrize is awarded, with bookiessuch as Ladbrokes backingSwedish teen climate activistGreta Thunberg.(AFP)

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Dark matter and exoplanet discoveries win Nobel Physics Prize

Defence Minister receives IAF’s first Rafale fighter jet from France

(From left) Canadian-American James Peebles, Swiss scientistsMichel Mayor and Didier Queloz who have been declared winnersof the Nobel Physics Prize for their work in cosmology.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh receiving Rafale fighter jet in Paris.