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reThis year’s Nobel Prize in Physics goes half to Britain’s Roger Penrose and half to Reinhard Genzel from Garching near Munich and American Andrea Ghez for their research on black holes. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced Tuesday in Stockholm. Reinhard Genzel is director of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, near Munich.
Roger Penrose (born 1931) receives the award for discovering that black hole formation is a robust prediction of general relativity. Reinhard Genzel (born 1952) and Andrea Ghez (born 1965) are honored for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the center of our galaxy.
Penrose invented ingenious mathematical methods to investigate Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, as announced by the Nobel Committee. He has shown that this theory leads to the formation of black holes, those monsters in time and space that capture everything that comes close to them. Genzel and Ghez discovered that an invisible and extremely heavy object dominates the orbits of the stars in the center of our galaxy. A supermassive black hole is the only currently known explanation for this.
The honored American Ghez highlighted the importance of science to humanity when she announced her award. She especially enjoys teaching, the scientist said Tuesday when connected by phone during the announcement of the award from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. The fact that the young generation can ask questions and think is simply decisive for the future of the world.
Ghez is only the fourth woman to receive the Nobel Prize in the physics category. “I hope I can inspire young women in the field,” Ghez said. There is much more to explore than black holes.
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Nobel Prize from 1901 to 2020
The highest prize for physicists this year is endowed with a total of ten million crowns (about 950,000 euros), one million crowns more than last year. Since it was first awarded in 1901, 212 researchers have received the Nobel Prize in Physics. American John Bardeen did it twice.
On Monday, the Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to virologists Harvey J. Alter (United States), Michael Houghton (Great Britain) and Charles M. Rice (United States). According to the Nobel Committee, they made a significant contribution to the detection and elimination of the hepatitis C virus. The blood tests and the resulting medication would have saved the lives of millions of people.
The winners: Roger Penrose (Great Britain), Reinhard Genzel (Garching near Munich) and Andrea Ghez (USA)
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Image: EPA
The winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry will be announced on Wednesday. The next day, this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature was announced. On Friday it will be announced who will receive this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. The round ends next Monday with the Nobel Prize in Economics donated by the Swedish Reichsbank.
The award ceremony is traditionally held on December 10, the anniversary of the death of the donor of the Alfred Nobel Prize.
Last year James Peebles (Canada / USA) received half of the Nobel Prize in Physics for his fundamental findings on the development of the universe. The other was for Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz (both from Switzerland), who discovered the first exoplanet orbiting a star similar to the sun.
