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ORIGINS scientist Reinhard Genzel receives the Nobel Prize for Physics 2020

Reinhard Genzel, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, receives the Nobel Prize for Physics 2020 together with Roger Penrose and Andrea Ghez. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards the scientists for their research on black holes.

Prize-winning research: Reinhard Genzel receives the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics for his observations of the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. Image Credit: Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Garching

Simulation of orbits of stars very close to the massive black hole in the center of the milky way. Image credit: ESO/L. Calçada/spaceengine.org

Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez share half of the Nobel prize for their observational verification of the theoretical predictions of Roger Penrose of the existence of black holes as a robust prediction of general relativity. Through the development of ground-breaking methods in IR astronomy, Genzel, Ghez and their groups discovered a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy.  Since the 1990s their observations using the world’s largest telescopes and ever more precise instruments and methods, together with their perseverance, made this discovery possible.

Sincere congratulations from ORIGINS on this outstanding award.


More information:

Press release of the Max-Planck-Society

Press release of the Nobel Foundation