THESEUS and the Nobel Prize in Physics 2020

The 2020 Nobel prize in physics has been awarded to three scientists — Roger Penrose, Andrea Ghez and Reinhard Genzel— who have significantly contributed to our understanding of one of the universe’s most intriguing and paradoxical phenomena: black holes. The prize is awarded for establishing that black holes can form within the theory of general relativity, as well as the discovery of a supermassive compact object, compatible with a black hole, at the center of our galaxy:

Image credit: Niklas Elmehed. © Nobel Media

The THESEUS teams congratulate with these colleagues. This Nobel prize further support the key role of BH study in modern fundamental physics, multi-messenger astrophysics and cosmology. THESEUS, through GRBs and other cosmic transients, will trace stellar black-hole formation and investigate their physics by detecting and characterizing the relativistic-jet emission from them over the whole cosmic history. THESEUS will also monitor the activity of feeding supermassive black holes in AGN during its wide-field sky survey.