MG 9 · 2000
Riccardo Giacconi
Riccardo Giacconi was a Nobel laureate and pioneer of X-ray astronomy.
Born
1931, Genoa, Italy
Affiliation at the Time of the Award
Associated Universities, Inc., Washington, United States
Prize Motivation
“For opening, five successive times, new highways for exploring the Universe.”
Meeting
MG IX, Rome, Italy
Work
X-ray astronomy opened a high-energy view of the universe unavailable from the ground.
Giacconi led missions and observatories that discovered cosmic X-ray sources and developed the infrastructure of modern X-ray astronomy.
His work revealed black holes, neutron stars, clusters, and hot gas as major components of the observable universe.