Three American scientists win Nobel prize for physics

BRUSSELS, Oct 3 (KUNA) -- The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced in Stockholm Tuesday that it has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics 2017 to three US scientists for the detection of gravitational waves.
They are Rainer Weiss, Kip Thorne and Barry Barish and all three are members of Ligo-Virgo observatories, which were responsible for the breakthrough.
Weiss and Thorne, together with Barish, the scientist and leader who brought the project to completion, ensured that four decades of effort led to gravitational waves finally being observed, it noted in a press release.
LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, is a collaborative project with over 1,000 researchers from more than 20 countries.
Weiss will get half of the nine million kronor (USD 1.1 million) prize money, while Barish and Thorne will share the other half. (end) nk.sd