In the past, we've always believed that black holes' existence and that nothing can escape them once inside. However, British physicist Stephen Hawking seems to think otherwise about the matter, and may even come under criticism from his colleagues in the scientific community.
In the science community, most physicists would think twice before writing a paper claiming "there are no black holes." However, since such a claim is coming from Stephen Hawking, it would be wise for us to take notice of what he has to say. Strangely enough, Stephen Hawking is one of the persons behind the modern-day black hole theory, so it is quite ironic to see him taking a step back and adjusting his thoughts on the matter.
Before we go any further, let's understand what is a black hole.
Theoretical physicists believe that black holes used to be regions of space-time, the very fabrics that make up the universe. Now, due to becoming dense, the huge gravity of these regions of space-time, generates an event horizon or the part of black hole from which nothing can escape once it gets inside, not even light or sound.
That's what we've known about black holes for decades, but Stephen Hawking is determined to change that.
"There is no escape from a black hole in classical theory," Hawking told Nature. Quantum theory, however, "enables energy and information to escape from a black hole." Hawking acknowledged that a full explanation of the process would require a theory that successfully merges gravity with the other fundamental forces of nature. However, that's a goal that has remained elsuive from physicists for nearly a century. "The correct treatment," Hawking said, "remains a mystery."
Hawking also told New Scientist that his initial theory of event horizon remains one of his "biggest blunders." "I used to think that information was destroyed in black holes. But the AdS/CFT correspondence led me to change my mind. This was my biggest blunder, or at least my biggest blunder in science," Hawking said.
This isn't the first time Hawking has caused a ruffle in the scientific community where this very topic is concerned. Back in 1974, he added quantum mechanics to the black hole theory, and to this very day it has sparked a row.
Hawking's paper, titled "Information Preservation and Weather Forecasting for Black Holes," was written to solve what scientist calls the black hole paradox. This so-called paradox has been keeping scientists on the edge for the last 2 years after theoretical physicist Joe Polchinski discovered it.
For those who are curious, if an astronaut falls into a black hole, he or she would be ripped to shreds like spaghetti, and then crushed. This information came together after researchers asked what would become of astronauts if they should ever pass through a black hole.
Furthermore, back in the 1970s, Stephen Hawking suggested that black holes slowly shrink while spewing out radiation. What this means is that the event horizon would be smaller than the apparent horizon. To break it down, event horizons are simple consequences of relativity, according to Einstein.
"The picture Hawking gives sounds reasonable," says Don Page, a physicist and expert on black holes at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, who collaborated with Hawking in the 1970s. "You could say that it is radical to propose there's no event horizon. But these are highly quantum conditions, and there's ambiguity about what spacetime even is, let alone whether there is a definite region that can be marked as an event horizon."
Still, Polchinski is skeptical of Hawking's claim of a black hole existing without an event horizon. He believes the violent fluctuations needed to get rid of an event horizon is rare in the Universe.
However, if Stephen Hawking is correct with his theory, it could change the scientific community and the world, all in the same breath.
