That in turn enabled them to learn more about the propertiesof the matter in the quasar as it moves ever closer towards the event horizon of the black hole.
He and fellow Cornell researchers David Lee and Douglas Osheroff were awarded the Nobel for 1996 for their 1971 work on low-temperature physics involving the isotope helium-3, which has contributed to research ranging from the propertiesof microscopic matter to astrophysics.
He predicted the next few years would be remembered as the "decade of the Wimp", and looked forward to dark matter's properties being exposed via a number of investigation strands that included Wimp production at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
It doesn't matter, Thompson said: comedy properties are full of potential not just in primetime, but in syndication, where they can be replayed at hefty prices for years.