Black Hole Discoveries Win 2020 Nobel Prize for Physics

Britain's Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel of Germany and US scientist Andrea Ghez won the 2020 Nobel Prize for Physics. (AP)
Britain's Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel of Germany and US scientist Andrea Ghez won the 2020 Nobel Prize for Physics. (AP)
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Black Hole Discoveries Win 2020 Nobel Prize for Physics

Britain's Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel of Germany and US scientist Andrea Ghez won the 2020 Nobel Prize for Physics. (AP)
Britain's Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel of Germany and US scientist Andrea Ghez won the 2020 Nobel Prize for Physics. (AP)

Britain's Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel of Germany and US scientist Andrea Ghez won the 2020 Nobel Prize for Physics for their discoveries about one of the most exotic phenomena in the universe, the black hole, the award-giving body said on Tuesday.

Penrose, professor at the University of Oxford, won half the prize for his work using mathematics to prove that black holes are a direct consequence of the general theory of relativity.

Genzel, of the Max Planck Institute and University of California, Berkeley, and Ghez, at the University of California, Los Angeles, shared the other half for discovering that an invisible and extremely heavy object governs the orbits of stars at the center of our galaxy.

Physics is the second of this year's crop of Nobels to be awarded, after three scientists won the medicine prize for their discovery of Hepatitis C on Monday.

Among the Nobel prizes, physics has often dominated the spotlight with past awards going to scientific superstars such as Albert Einstein for fundamental discoveries about the make-up of the universe, including the general theory of relativity.

"The discoveries of this year's Laureates have broken new ground in the study of compact and supermassive objects," David Haviland, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said on awarding the 10 million Swedish crown ($1.1 million) prize.

"But these exotic objects still pose many questions that beg for answers and motivate future research."

Ghez is only the fourth woman to win the physics prize, after Marie Curie in 1903, Maria Goeppert Mayer in 1963 and Donna Strickland in 2018.

The Nobel prizes were created in the will of Swedish dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel and have been awarded since 1901.

This year's awards occur under the long shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic that has curtailed much of the usual festivities surrounding the prizes and sent the scientific world racing to develop a vaccine and treatment.



Ford Recalls More than 200,000 Vehicles over Malfunctioning Rearview Camera

A Ford automobile logo is seen during the New York International Auto Show Press Preview in New York City, US, April 16, 2025. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo
A Ford automobile logo is seen during the New York International Auto Show Press Preview in New York City, US, April 16, 2025. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo
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Ford Recalls More than 200,000 Vehicles over Malfunctioning Rearview Camera

A Ford automobile logo is seen during the New York International Auto Show Press Preview in New York City, US, April 16, 2025. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo
A Ford automobile logo is seen during the New York International Auto Show Press Preview in New York City, US, April 16, 2025. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo

Ford Motor Co. is recalling more than 200,000 vehicles because a software defect can cause the rearview camera to fail, increasing the risk of a crash and injury, Reuters reported.

Ford told US highway safety regulators that the camera can either display a blank image or that the image may remain on the display after the driver finishes backing up, causing a distraction, Reuters reported.

Dealerships will eventually update the camera software free of charge.

Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed by July 28.