Specola Guestbook | May 9, 2017: Sir Roger Penrose
Since its founding in 1891, many people have passed through the doors of the Vatican Observatory. A quick perusal of our guestbook reveals several Names, including Popes, Nobel laureates, astronauts, actors, and saints. We’re going to interrupt the usual chronological order this week, due to an interesting development in current events. It may have slipped your attention in the midst of other breaking news bulletins, but this week the Nobel committee announced the recipients of the 2020 Nobel prize in physics. They are Roger Penrose “for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity” and Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez “for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy.” [Special mention should be made for Andrea Ghez, a professor at UCLA. Women are woefully underrepresented among Nobel laureates. She is only the fourth woman to receive the physics prize. She joins ranks with Marie Curie, Maria Goeppert-Mayer, … Continue reading →