Nobel prize in physics awarded to trio for work on black hole formation
Three scientists have won the 2020 Nobel prize in physics for their work on black hole formation and the discovery of a supermassive blackhole at the centre of our galaxy.
Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez together scooped the 114th Nobel prize in physics.
The award, announced on Tuesday, is presented by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and is worth 10m Swedish kronor (£870,000), which will be shared among the winners, with half going to Penrose and the other half shared between Genzel and Ghez.
Penrose, a British mathematical physicist based at the University of Oxford, won his share of the prize for using ingenious mathematical tools to prove that the formation of black holes are predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
Genzel and Ghez, who are German and American respectively, were honoured for their work in which they turned telescopes on our own galaxy and discovered there is a supermassive blackhole in the centre of the Milky Way.
“This year’s laureates have uncovered secrets in the darkest corner of our universe. But this is not just an old adventure coming to its triumphant conclusion, it is a new one beginning. As we probe ever closer to the horizons of the black holes, nature might have new surprises in store,” said Ulf Danielsson, the professor of theoretical physics at Uppsala University in Sweden.
Ghez, only the fourth woman to be awarded a Nobel prize in physics, said she was thrilled to receive the award. “I hope I can inspire other young women into the field. It is a field that has so many pleasures, and if you are passionate about the science there is so much that can be done,” she said.
The announcement of the winners was delayed, the committee said, due to a delay in contacting the winners.
Dr Ziri Younsi of University College London, and an expert on black holes, said it was wonderful to hear the news of the winners. “Black holes are fascinating and enigmatic objects. It is wonderful to see the fundamentally important theoretical and observational work of these laureates recognised by the Nobel committee,” he said.
“The future of compact object physics and our quest to understand black holes is picking up pace, and hopefully there will be more Nobel prizes on this topic in the years ahead.”
On Monday, the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine, awarded by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, went to three researchers for their work on the hepatitis C virus, a major cause of liver disease.
The Nobel prize in chemistry will be announced on Wednesday by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.