Back in 1974, Stephen Hawking was making one of his most famous predictions – the one claiming that black holes can evaporate and disappear entirely in the end.
According to his theory, black holes are not entirely black, but they can actually emit particles. This is a radiation that Hawking believed could eventually siphon enough energy and mass away from black holes in order to make them disappear, reports Live Science.
This theory is assumed to be true, but it was once believed to be impossible to prove.
“Showing” the Hawking radiation
But now, for the very first time, physicists have been able to show this elusive Hawking radiation at least in a laboratory.
Live Science writes that “though Hawking radiation is too faint to be detected in space by our current instruments, physicists have now seen this radiation in a black hole analog created using sound waves and some of the coldest, strangest matter in the universe.”
As we all know, black holes have such a massive gravitational force that even photons which travel at the speed of light cannot escape.
The vacuum of space is believed to be empty, but, “the uncertainty of quantum mechanics dictates that a vacuum is instead teeming with virtual particles that flit in and out of existence in matter-antimatter pairs.”
It’s been also reported that after a pair of virtual particles pops up they will annihilate each other.
Next to a black hole, the massive gravitational forces will pull the particles apart, and one will be absorbed into the black hole and the other will be shooting off into space.
The particle that’s absorbed has negative energy, and this will reduce the black hole’s energy and mass. If a black hole swallows enough of such particles it will eventually evaporate.
The particle that does escape is called Hawking radiation and physicists have come with all kinds of creative ways to measure it in laboratories. We recommend that you read more details in Live Science’s original article.
Rada attended the courses in the Faculty of Letters, Romanian-English section, and finished the Faculty of Theatre and Television, Theatrical Journalism section, both within the framework of Babeş-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca. Up ’til now, she reviewed books, movies, and theatre-plays, enjoying subjects from the cultural niche. Her experience in writing also intersects the IT niche, given the fact that she worked as a content editor for firms that produce software for mobile devices. She is collaborating with online advertising agencies, writing articles for several websites and blogs.