WASHINGTON (AP) — A Johns Hopkins University professor says his "jaw dropped" when he learned he is sharing the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics with two others.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences says Adam Riess, an astronomy professor at the university, is sharing the prize with fellow American Saul Perlmutter and U.S.-Australian citizen Brian Schmidt.
The trio was honored "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe through observations of distant supernovae."
The 41-year-old Riess says he got a phone call around 5:30 a.m. Tuesday and that he "couldn't believe it" and "didn't know if this would happen ever."
The work Riess is being honored for stems from a 1998 discovery that the universe is expanding.
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