10月8日，米歇尔·马约尔和迪迪尔·奎罗兹因1995年发现一颗外行星而获得诺贝尔物理学奖。自发现以来的24年里，人们对太阳系外行星进行了大量研究新闻稿瑞典皇家科学院声称自1995年以来已经发现了4000多个。但是市长怀疑人类是否有可能生活在外星。当法新社问及这个想法时，市长称之为“完全疯狂”
在他的I与法新社互动，市长否定了人类开始居住在这些行星上的任何想法，主要是因为距离:“这些行星太远了，太远了。即使在非常乐观的情况下，一个不太远的宜居星球，比如几十光年，也不是很多，它就在附近，去那里的时间相当长。”他接着说，他想“消除所有说‘好吧，如果有一天地球上不可能有生命，我们将去一个宜居的星球’的言论。”"
美国宇航局对系外行星的研究表明，大多数确认的系外行星由气体或冰组成，但是一些岩石行星可能能够支持它们自己的生命形式。
10月8日，77岁的米歇尔·马约尔因发现系外行星的工作被宣布为诺贝尔奖得主。在一次采访中，他表示人类不会迁移到地球太阳系以外的星球。
这位77岁的物理学家似乎对地球上的长期生命和太阳系外行星的未来发现都很乐观。他说，“我们必须爱护我们的星球，它非常美丽，仍然绝对适宜居住。”他表示，不排除太阳系以外行星上存在生命的可能性，“[发现其他行星上生命的唯一方法]是开发技术，让我们能够远距离探测生命。”
市长的共同诺贝尔奖获得者迪迪埃·奎罗兹在接受《新闻周刊》采访时表示同意他的同事的观点。“他说得对，我们没有技术。这位瑞士物理学家写道:“也许在1000年或100万年后，如果我们成熟了，我们将面临我们作为一个物种的责任，这个物种目前正在改变地球表面及其大气层(地形)，以至于我们将自己以及地球上所有生命的存在置于危险之中。”。“想象离开地球去其他地方是不负责任的。是时候停止梦想，面对现实了，我们的人类社会应该努力行动起来，确保未来的存在，也许有一天我们能够在星空中旅行。”
在采访中诺贝尔奖组织市长表示，他相信我们离在系外行星上发现生命还有至少十年的时间，但他承认，在过去的两千年里，这一直是人类共同的好奇心:“希腊哲学家们正在讨论多个世界，以及其中一些世界在两千年前有人居住的可能性，所以我相信我们可以再等20年。”
NOBEL PRIZE WINNER SAYS 'IT'S COMPLETELY CRAZY' TO THINK HUMANS WILL RELOCATE TO THE PLANETS HE DISCOVERED
On October 8, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for their 1995 discovery of an exoplanet. In the 24 years since the find, much research has been done on exoplanets with a press release from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences claiming over 4,000 have been discovered since 1995. But Mayor doubts the likelihood that humans will ever live on an exoplanet. When asked by Agence France-Presse, Mayor called the idea "completely crazy."
In his interview with AFP, Mayor shot down any notion of humans beginning to inhabit these planets, mainly due to the distance: "These planets are much, much too far away. Even in the very optimistic case of a livable planet that is not too far, say a few dozen light years, which is not a lot, it's in the neighborhood, the time to go there is considerable." He went onto say that he would like to "kill all the statements that say 'OK, we will go to a livable planet if one day life is not possible on Earth.'"
NASA research on exoplanets shows that most confirmed exoplanets are composed of gas or ice, but a few rocky planets may be able to support their own lifeforms.
Michel Mayor, 77, was announced as a Nobel Prize Winner on October 8 for his work in discovering exoplanets. In an interview, he stated that humans will not migrate to planets outside of Earth's solar system.
The 77-year-old physicist appeared optimistic about both long-term life on Earth and future discoveries of exoplanets. He stated, "We must take care of our planet, it is very beautiful and still absolutely livable." Not ruling out the possibility of life on planets outside of our solar systems, he stated, "The only way to [discover life on other planets] is to develop techniques that would allow us to detect life at a distance."
In a statement to Newsweek, Mayor's co-Nobel Prize winner, Didier Queloz concurred with his colleague. "He's right, we don't have the technology. Maybe in 1,000 years or 1 million years if we mature and we face our responsibilities as a species that currently modifies the Earth's surface and its atmosphere (terraforms) to the point that we put ourselves as well as the existence of all life on Earth in danger," the Swiss physicist wrote. "To imagine leaving the Earth to go elsewhere is irresponsible. It's time to stop dreaming and confront reality, and for our human society to carry our effort and act to ensure that a future exists and that maybe one day we will be able to journey among the stars."
In an interview with the Nobel Prize Organization, Mayor stated his belief that we are still at least a decade away from discovering life on exoplanets, but he did acknowledge that it has been a common curiosity among humans for the past two millennia: "Greek philosophers were discussing the plurality of worlds and the possibility to have some of them inhabited 2,000 years ago, so I believe we can wait 20 years more."
