Stephen Hawking is known to pretty much everyone. The late physicist dedicated most of his research to black holes and secured a number of insights into the strange objects in space. During his lifetime, he discovered, among other things, that the hungry structures are not static, but very dynamic. They also seem to be disintegrating, little by little. A research team has now found that almost everything in space is also slowly decomposing at this exact moment.
Stephen Hawking & Hawking Radiation
The dissolution process that Stephen Hawking discovered in black holes can be explained by what is known as Hawking radiation. The renowned physicist put forward the theory in 1974, almost 50 years ago. Hawking radiation describes the following phenomenon:
The event horizon of a black hole describes the point at which particles can irreversibly pass through the hole’s pull. At the quantum level, this is an incredibly dynamic environment in which quantum particles and anti-particles briefly combine with each other and then eliminate each other. However, near the event horizon of a black hole, it can also happen that one of the two particles is drawn in instead. The other thing that remains, however, radiates. This is the so-called Hawking radiation.
Since this process continues forever, one can say that black holes evaporate at a minimal speed – with every particle that is emitted by the Hawking radiation. Now a research team from Radboud University in the Netherlands has added an important point to Stephen Hawking’s theory: this decomposition process requires neither a black hole nor an event horizon. Instead, it is currently taking place in many places in the cosmos.
Universe is decomposing due to previously unknown radiation
Since Stephen Hawking’s theory and thus Hawking radiation only relates to black holes, the researchers led by astrophysicist Michael F. Wondrak have assigned the newly discovered decomposition process to a previously unknown radiation:
“Our results demonstrate the existence of a previously unknown form of radiation that is different from Hawking radiation,” is called it in the interdisciplinary research results. Nevertheless, the types of radiation are incredibly similar: “If we compare the number of particles and the energy flow with the Hawking case, we find that both effects are of similar magnitude.”
However, an important distinguishing feature is the conditions for it to arise. The specialist magazine research and knowledge summarizes together that, contrary to Stephen Hawking’s theory, the new radiation can already arise from simple gravitational fields of massive objects. This includes almost every massive planet and star. As a result, this means that our universe is currently decomposing and the cosmos could end at some point.
Source: “Gravitational Pair Production and Black Hole Evaporation” (Physical Review Letters, June 2023), Research and Knowledge
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