Black Holes Can Die, but Hawking Radiation Makes It a Slow Process

Swift Summary

• Black holes can die through a process known as Hawking radiation, discovered by Stephen Hawking in the 1970s.
• This involves “virtual particles” near the event horizon causing black holes to lose energy adn mass over time.
• The timeline for black hole evaporation depends on size:

– A solar-mass black hole would take about (10^{67}) years to vanish.
– Supermassive black holes might take closer to (10^{100}) years (a googol).

• Hawking radiation is extremely faint, making it nearly unachievable to observe directly in current-day black holes.
• Smaller primordial black holes formed early in the universe may evaporate faster but remain undetected despite NASA’s search with gamma-ray telescopes.

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Indian Opinion Analysis

The concept of Hawking radiation provides profound insights into not only astrophysics but also the ultimate fate of celestial structures like black holes and, ultimately, our universe. For a country like India, which has steadily increased its investments in space research and cosmology through organizations such as ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation), advancements tied to studying phenomena such as Hawking radiation could further solidify India’s role within global scientific discourse.

As India continues collaborations with international observatories and strengthens its domestic capabilities-like upcoming projects on advanced telescopes-it could contribute valuable research towards understanding elusive cosmic events like primordial or evaporating black holes. This long-term emphasis on high-quality foundational science aligns well with efforts toward positioning India as both an innovator and educator within cutting-edge physics. While direct observation remains far from realizable currently due to technological limitations globally, integrating these pursuits within India’s science strategy could yield impactful future dividends.