Roger Penrose of Britain, Reinhard Genzel of Germany and Andrea Ghez of the US won the Nobel Prize for Physics for their research in the domain of Black Holes, AFP reported.

The Nobel Committee reportedly said that the physicists were selected for "their discoveries about one of the most exotic phenomena in the universe, the black hole."

The jury was quoted as saying that while Penrose (89) was conferred upon the coveted award for showing "that the general theory of relativity leads to the formation of black holes", Genzel (68) and Ghez (55) were jointly awarded for discovering "that an invisible and extremely heavy object governs the orbits of stars at the centre of our galaxy."

Interestingly, Ghez is only the fourth woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Physics ever since the Nobel Prizes were first handed out in 1901.

The trio will share the prize money of 10 million Swedish kronor, with Penrose receiving half the sum and the rest being shared between Genzel and Ghez.