Hawking resolves black hole riddle

[NashVegas]

After nearly 30 years of arguing that a black hole destroys everything that falls into it, Stephen Hawking is saying he was wrong.

In an announcement that has sent waves of excitement through the rarefied world of astrophysics, Prof Stephen Hawking claims to have solved one of the greatest mysteries of black holes, reports the Telegraph, London.

The new theory, which solves a major paradox about the most mysterious objects in the universe, has generated a flurry of excitement among his Cambridge colleagues, the Telegraph said.

....

Hawking requested at the last minute that he be allowed to present his findings at the 17th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation in Dublin, Ireland on Wednesday, said the New Scientist.

http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/jul/15hawking.htm

this'll be fun .. maybe.

[curse10]

1. sweet!

I'm excited. But then, I like to study this shit in my spare time. My favorite theory about black holes is that once you hit the event horizon time speeds up- and, if not for the crushing gravity, you'd be able to see galaxies being born, stars destructing and being created, etc... That would be awesome.

[jean]

2. it's exciting to hear from him again. I've been worried ever since

we heard he had been left out in the sun in his wheelchair by persons unknown.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

3. Radiation and heat come out

"...Professor Malcolm MacCallum of the University of London, who has spoken to Professor Hawking about his new work, said a paradox remained. "When you create a black hole, a lot of information - ordered matter - goes into it," he said. "The thermal radiation doesn't carry any information, but it leaks, and means the black hole dissipates into nothing. So where does the information go? It can't be destroyed." That paradox, set up by Professor Hawking's 1976 findings, has puzzled scientists since. But in a five-line proposal for a paper hastily scheduled for the last session of next week's conference, Professor Hawking will argue that black holes never quite shut themselves off from the outside universe.

Instead, as the universe cools, they emit more of their heat in Hawking radiation, and eventually open up to reveal again the "information" that they originally sucked in when they formed. In his five-line brief to the conference organisers, Professor Hawking said that "the way the information gets out seems to be that a true event horizon never forms, just an apparent horizon". Professor MacCallum said: "My attitude was that if he's saying, 'Look at this' then it's not done lightly."

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=541114