Sometimes it's not that hard to predict the future -- everyone paying attention (including me) knew that one of the most Nobel-worthy discoveries out there was the 1998 announcement that our universe is accelerating. Now the achievement has been officially honored, with this year's Physics Prize going to Saul Perlmutter, Adam Riess, and Brian Schmidt. (Great quotes and coverage at the Guardian.) Congrats to three extremely deserving scientists!
Like regular people with major historical events, most physicists can remember where they were when they first heard that the universe is accelerating. That's how big this discovery was. It was just the right combination of "startling" -- very few people really thought the universe was accelerating, and if they did they certainly weren't proclaiming that belief very loudly -- and "believable" -- we all knew it was possible, and as soon as the data came in people realized that it solved ...
