Barry Barish, Kip Thorne, Rainer Weiss of US win Nobel Physics Prize for gravitational waves

The names of Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne are displayed on the screen during the announcement of the winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2017, in Stockholm, Sweden, October 3, 2017. TT News Agency/Jessica Gow via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. SWEDEN OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN SWEDEN - RC1B97595AE0

US astrophysicists Barry Barish, Kip Thorne and Rainer Weiss won the Nobel Physics Prize for their discovery of gravitational waves, the Nobel jury said today.

Predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago as part of his theory of general relativity but only first detected in 2015, gravitational waves are 'ripples' in the fabric of space-time caused by violent processes in the Universe, such as colliding black holes or the collapse of stellar cores.

"Their discovery shook the world," said Goran K Hansson, the head of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences.