Mubasher: Three scientists won and shared this year’s Nobel Prize in physics for advancing our understanding of black holes, CNBC reported on Tuesday. 

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, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

Moreover, German Reinhard Genzel and American Andrea Ghez will receive the second half of the prize for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy.

Penrose proved with mathematics that the formation of black holes was possible, based heavily on Albert Einstein’s general relativity theory.  

Genzel and Ghez looked at the dust-covered centre of our Milky Way galaxy where something strange was going on, several stars moving around something they could not see. It was a supermassive black hole, four million times the mass of our sun.

Now scientists know that all galaxies have supermassive black holes.

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

On Monday, the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was awarded jointly to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton, and Charles M. Rice for the discovery of the hepatitis C virus, according to The New York Times.

“For the first time in history, the disease can now be cured, raising hopes of eradicating hepatitis C virus from the world population,” the Nobel committee said in a statement.

About 71 million people worldwide live with a chronic infection of the hepatitis C virus, a blood-borne pathogen that can cause severe liver inflammation or hepatitis.

The other prizes, which will be announced in the coming days, are for outstanding work in the fields of chemistry, literature, peace, and economics.