Nobel Prize in Physics awarded for black hole discoveries

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CNN

(CNN) The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to scientists Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez for their discoveries about black holes.

Göran K. Hansson, secretary for the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, said at Tuesday's ceremony in Stockholm that this year's prize was about "the darkest secrets of universe.

"Penrose, a professor at the University of Oxford who worked with Stephen Hawking, was awarded half of the prize "for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity." The other half was awarded jointly to Genzel and Ghez "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the center of our galaxy."

"Penrose, Genzel and Ghez together showed us that black holes are awe-inspiring, mathematically sublime, and actually exist," Tom McLeish, professor of natural philosophy at the University of York, told the Science Media Centre in London.



Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/06/world/nobel-prize-2020-winner-physics-scn-intl/index.html

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Full headline: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded for black hole discoveries to Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez

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The Nobel Prize
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The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2020 #NobelPrize in Physics with one half to Roger Penrose and the other half jointly to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez.
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6:03 AM · Oct 6, 2020

Original article -

(CNN) The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded for discoveries about black holes, with one half going to Roger Penrose and the other half jointly to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez.

Gran K. Hansson, secretary for the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, said at Tuesday's ceremony in Stockholm that this year's prize was about "the darkest secrets of universe."

This year's Nobel Prize in Medicine was jointly awarded to the US-UK trio of Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice on Monday for the discovery of hepatitis C virus, which led to the development of tests and treatments.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry will be announced on Wednesday, followed by the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday, the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday and the Prize in Economic Sciences next Monday.

This story is breaking news. More details to follow...

[ProfessorGAC]

1. Penrose Has Been Around For A Long Time

He's been at the top of this field for decades. Good for him to get this award.
I saw a doc on Science Channel and Andrea was in it. She was really good on camera, was good at explaining things in clear terms, and seemed a fun person.
Good for all of them.
I'm looking forward to today's award, since that's my field.

[Earthshine2]

2. I remember seeing a program in 1985 in which Penrose says,

"Black holes are a clear prediction of relativity."

From the article ...

Penrose was the first to prove mathematically, in 1965, that they are a natural consequence of relativity theory and not just science fiction,"

It has taken a long time for him to get this award.

[ProfessorGAC]

7. You're Not Kidding!

55 Years!
At least he got it, albeit late.

[VWolf]

3. So happy for Roger Penrose!

The "Schwarzchild solution" to the equations of general relativity came about almost 100 years ago, and described spacetime for a spherically symmetric collection of mass. It was this solution that suggested the possibility of black holes. However, black holes were initially considered only a mathematical curiosity, and most people, at first, didn't believe they could exist. Two things changed that. The first was contained in the work of Penrose, who described, mathematically, the process whereby black holes would form from "ordinary" mass distributions. The second was the discovery of Cygnus X-1, the first black hole observed.

Kudos to you, Roger!

[ananda]

4. Very worthy.

Congratulations to them, especially Penrose.

[CaptainTruth]

5. Penrose is one of my favorites, after reading The Road to Reality.

[onetexan]

6. Congrats to the trio. Has the Con been awarded the Nobel prize for his science-denying yet?

[George II]

8. I went to college with the man who won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in discovering..

...the first binary pulsars and many black holes.

We were classmates in our Freshman year before everyone moved on to our disciplines (he Physics, me Mechanical Engineering)