Ulf Danielsson, a member of the Nobel Committee for Physics, explains the achievements of the 2020 Nobel laureates in Physics during the prize announcement at the Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, on Oct. 6, 2020. (Photo by Wei Xuechao/Xinhua)

Ghez, one of the laureate, said in the on-site telephone interview that she was very "thrilled" to receive the prize as a female laureate and that she took seriously the responsibility associated with the prize.

She emphasized that "science is critical to human beings" and "I feel passionate to teach younger generations the ability to question and think, which is crucial to the world."

Ghez noted that it was first "doubt and excitement, a combination of things" that drove her in her researches.

"We still do not know what's in the black hole. It's part of the intrigue, which still pushes our understanding to the new world," she said.

This year's prize amount is 10 million Swedish kronor(about 1.12 million U.S. dollars), with one half to Penrose and the other half jointly to Genzel and Ghez.

Penrose, born in 1931, is a professor at University of Oxford.

Genzel, born in 1952, is the director at Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Germany and a professor at University of California, Berkeley, the United States.

Ghez, born in 1965, is a professor at University of California, Los Angeles, the United States.