Why In News ?
Three share Physics Nobel Prize for advancing our understanding of black holes, the all-consuming monsters that lurk in the darkest parts of the universe.
About Nobel for Black Holes
- Briton Roger Penrose received half of this year’s prize “for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity,
- German Reinhard Genzel and American Andrea Ghez received the second half of the prize for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the center of our galaxy.
- Penrose proved with mathematics that the formation of black holes was possible, based heavily on Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
- Ghez is the fourth woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for physics, after Marie Curie in 1903, Maria Goeppert-Mayer in 1963, and Donna Strickland in 2018.
Read Also : Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology
What is a black hole ?
A black hole is a region having gravity pull is so much. Matter has been squeezed into a tiny space which increases the gravity. This compression can take place at the end of a star’s life. Event the black holes do not allow lights to leave and so it cant be visible.
Space telescopes with special instruments can help find black holes. They can observe the behaviour of material and stars that are very close to black holes.
About Nobel
- Nobel award comes with a gold medal and prize money of over USD 1,118,000 courtesy of a bequest left 124 years ago by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel.
- The Nobel Committee often recognizes basic science that has laid the foundations for practical applications in common use today.
- The other prizes are for outstanding work in the fields of chemistry, literature, peace and economics.
Source : The Hindu
Topic
Prelims : Black hole, Gravitational waves, Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory
GS III : Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights
Current Affairs Compilation : 6 October 2020