Long Theorized, Hawking Radiation Has Now Been Observed For The First Time
Black Hole In Front Of The Milky Way Ute Kraus More than 30 years after Stephen Hawking predicted the existence of radiation emitted by black holes, physicists say they've finally observed the phenomenon for themselves, not in the heavens, but down here on Earth. The universe is filled with particle/antiparticle pairs that form and almost immediately mutually annihilate, releasing their energy. Hawking radiation, as it's known, occurs when these pairs form near the edge of a black hole. As the pair of particles crosses the black hole's event horizon, one member is sucked in, while the other is set free -- before they are able to annihilate each other. The observed effect is that the black hole is radiating particles, and actually losing mass. Researchers at the University of Milan claim to have observed Hawking radiation in their lab by creating the inverse of a black hole - the aptly...