# 2020: Physics Nobel Prize:

Discussion in 'General Science & Technology' started by paddoboy, Oct 6, 2020.

Messages:
27,534
https://phys.org/news/2020-10-scientists-nobel-physics-prize-cosmology.html
3 scientists win Nobel physics prize for black hole research
by David Keyton, Seth Borenstein and Frank Jordans

This combination of 2020 and 2015 photos shows, from left, Reinhard Genzel, astrophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics; Andrea Ghez, professor of physics and astronomy at UCLA, and Roger Penrose, of the University of Oxford. On Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020, they shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for advancing our understanding of black holes. (Matthias Balk/dpa, Elena Zhukova/UCLA, Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for advancing our understanding of black holes, the all-consuming monsters that lurk in the darkest parts of the universe and still confound astronomers.

Roger Penrose of Britain, Reinhard Genzel of Germany and Andrea Ghez of the United States explained to the world these dead ends of the cosmos that devour light and even time. Staples of both science fact and fiction, black holes are still not completely understood but are deeply connected, somehow, to the creation of galaxies, where the stars and life exist.

Penrose, of the University of Oxford, received half of the prize for discovering that Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity predicts the formation of black holes.

Genzel, who is at both the Max Planck Institute in Germany and the University of California, Berkeley, and Ghez, of the University of California, Los Angeles, received the other half of the prize for discovering a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.

The prize celebrates what the Nobel Committee called "one of the most exotic objects in the universe" and ones that "still pose many questions that beg for answers and motivate future research."

Black holes are at the center of every galaxy, and smaller ones are dotted around the universe. Just their existence is mind-bending, taking what people experience every day on Earth—light and time—and warping them in such a way that seems unreal. Time slows and even stops in black holes.

Messages:
27,534
https://phys.org/news/2020-10-uk-nobel-physics-laureate-tribute.html

UK Nobel physics laureate pays tribute to snubbed Hawking:

Nobel physics laureate Roger Penrose on Tuesday said his late colleague Stephen Hawking richly deserved a share of the prize after the British scientists conducted pioneering research into black holes.

Penrose, 89, told reporters that he had just come out of the shower when he received confirmation of the prize from the Nobel committee.

"I wasn't expecting it at all. It's a huge honour and I'm sure it will be a benefit to promoting ideas which I hope people will look at a little more seriously, ideas about cosmology," he said from his home in Oxford.

Understanding black holes was important to shedding light on the origins of matter and galaxies, the mathematician said, and understanding the "singularities" that lie at their heart was the "greatest puzzle" facing astrophysics today.

"We haven't the faintest idea how to describe the physics that goes on in the middle," he said.

Penrose was jointly awarded the Nobel with two other physicists, in his case for 1964 research that showed Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity leads to the formation of black holes.

Penrose was one of Hawking's Ph.D. examiners in 1966, and they collaborated on work into the origins of the universe.

Martin Rees, Britain's astronomer royal and fellow of Trinity College Cambridge, said they were "the two individuals who have done more than anyone else since Einstein to deepen our knowledge of gravity".

5. ### billvonValued Senior Member

Messages:
20,031
Cool. I went to school with her.

7. ### exchemistValued Senior Member

Messages:
10,683
Cool indeed. Was she already a whiz at physics then, or did that develop later?

8. ### billvonValued Senior Member

Messages:
20,031
She seemed pretty smart (but then most people there did.) I didn't know her that well; met her only a few times.

Messages:
27,534
Whole heartedly agree with that. Not many people could have achieved what Hawking did, taking into account the disability he had. He was a giant amongst men and a shame that it cannot be awarded posthumously. That would have been a nice gesture.

10. ### Michael 345New year. PRESENT is 71 years oldValued Senior Member

Messages:
11,087
Unfortunately Stephen is in to bigger black hole for that to be possible

RIP

11. ### POVphysics2Registered Member

Messages:
93
How can we ever confirm empirically whether what they said about black holes is right or wrong? I suppose if nothing more significant is going on in physics, you can always speculate about black holes.

Messages:
27,534
We know enough for them to receive the Nobel prize for their work.
What specifically are you on about.
We have even photographed one [its shadow actually] and have seen matter virtually disappear into oblivion around them eg: Cygnus X-1. Or surely you are not going to infer they don't exist?
If so, I'll wait patiently while you describe the effects of spacetime we see in another way. And then attend your own Nobel prize next year

Messages:
93
14. ### POVphysics2Registered Member

Messages:
93
Remember when we figured out that light is made of quanta of photons? It was the Ultraviolet Catastrophe that gave us the heads up that something was wrong. Well, we're going to figure out that spacetime geometry is made of quanta too.

15. ### Michael 345New year. PRESENT is 71 years oldValued Senior Member

Messages:
11,087
What this we're paleface?

16. ### exchemistValued Senior Member

Messages:
10,683
Hmm, you look to me like yet another person trying to reinvent physics without understanding it first. We see a lot of those. The stuff you wrote about c and waves is pretty dreadful.

Markus really does know what he is talking about and is a very patient teacher. I would pay attention to him if I were you.

Actually the others are being very patient too. But in the end you are going to need a physics course to get anywhere with your ideas.

Last edited: Nov 30, 2020
17. ### foghornRegistered Senior Member

Messages:
740
I don't mean to go all girly, but Markus is one of my heroes there. Worth reading.

exchemist likes this.

Messages:
27,534
Yes, I'm still a member there although non active at this time. I see you have a -7

What should I read into that?
A few points anyway. Firstly we do not have a quanta theory of gravity or spacetime. So your talk on gravitons is baseless.

Advice? Start listening to experts in that forum...they certainly have far more then here and more importantly, do not put up with nonsense.

Messages:
93

20. ### POVphysics2Registered Member

Messages:
93

Messages:
27,534
Not really. While the score is a general indication, I am also pretty well used to individuals coming along claiming to have re-written modern physics and surpassed the greats of the past.
If they were [including yourself] and if you really had something of a concrete nature to offer, you would write up a scientific paper for peer review and publication.
I don't think that will happen.

ps: Please don't start with the unsupported conspiracy notions about mainstream science blocking such potential "discoveries" and/or approaching it with a built in recalcitrance to any new stuff. That's just wishful thinking on the part of many with delusions of grandeur.

22. ### exchemistValued Senior Member

Messages:
10,683
I've read it. You've obviously understood some terms but missed chunks of basic physics, e.g. v=fλ being true for all waves, de Broglie's relation not referring to the speed of light, and so forth. I don't think you will get far without filling in these gaps.

23. ### POVphysics2Registered Member

Messages:
93
I didn't miss it. There are just too many things to include and I can only type so fast.
Code:
$c = \lambda \nu$
is such a foundational equation.