Nobel Prize for the year 2020 in Physics was awarded to three scientists for advancing our understanding of black holes.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that Briton Roger Penrose will receive half of this year’s prize “for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity”.

While, Reinhard Genzel and American Andrea Ghez will receive the second half of the prize “for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the center of our galaxy.” The prizes celebrate “one of the most exotic objects in the universe,” black holes, which have become a staple of science fiction and science fact and where time even seems to stand still, Nobel committee scientists, said.

The prestigious award comes with a gold medal and prize money of 10 million Swedish kronor (more than USD 1.1 million).

On Monday, the Nobel Committee awarded the prize for physiology and medicine to Americans Harvey J Alter and Charles M Rice and British-born scientist Michael Houghton for discovering the liver-ravaging hepatitis C virus.