The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to jointly award the coveted award to Roger Penrose and Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez. The announcement was broadcast online by the Nobel Foundation
Second day of the 2020 Nobel Week. In the aftermath of the announcement of the winners of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Medicine, awarded to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice, honored for the discovery of the hepatitis C virus, today it is the turn of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to jointly award the coveted recognition to Roger Penrose and Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez, for their discoveries “on one of the darkest mysteries of the Universe”. The announcement was broadcast online by the Nobel Foundation.
Roger Penrose: his discovery
Half of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Roger Penrose (professor at the University of Oxford), born in 1931 in Colchester, UK. The coveted prize was awarded to him “for discovering that the formation of a black hole is a clear prediction of the general theory of relativity”. Specifically, Penrose invented elaborate mathematical methods to explore Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, managing to demonstrate how the latter leads to the formation of black holes, “those monsters in time and space that capture everything that enters them” .
Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez: their discovery
DEEPENING
2020 Nobel Prize in Medicine awarded to Alter, Houghton and Rice
Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez share the other half of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics, “for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the center of our galaxy”.
Genzel , born in 1952, was born in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe, Germany, and is the director of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching.
Andrea Ghez , on the other hand, born in 1965 in the city of New York, USA, teaches at the University of California (UCLA), Los Angeles. Genzel and Ghez have discovered that an invisible and extremely heavy object rules the orbits of the stars at the center of our galaxy. A supermassive black hole is the only currently known explanation.
“I hope I can inspire other young women in the industry. It is a field that can be very rewarding, and if you are passionate about science, there is so much you can do, ”Ghez said at a press conference.
