A groundbreaking new theory has significantly revised Stephen Hawking’s 1974 black hole theory, suggesting that all objects with mass might eventually vanish.
Stephen Hawking’s iconic theory on black holes has been updated with a chilling twist: it now proposes that everything in the universe is fated to evaporate over time.
In 1974, Hawking introduced the concept of black hole evaporation, caused by what is now called Hawking radiation. This phenomenon involves energy escaping as light particles, or photons, created by the intense gravitational forces surrounding black holes. A recent update to this theory suggests that Hawking radiation doesn’t exclusively originate from black holes; instead, it could occur around any massive object.
If this updated theory is correct, it implies that all objects in the universe will ultimately lose their energy through radiation, eventually fading away entirely.
“This means that objects without an event horizon [the boundary around black holes beyond which nothing, not even light, can escape], such as dead star remnants and other massive cosmic entities, could also emit this radiation,” explained Heino Falcke, a professor of astrophysics at Radboud University in the Netherlands. “Over an extremely long period, this would cause everything in the universe to evaporate, much like black holes. This not only transforms our understanding of Hawking radiation but also alters how we perceive the universe’s ultimate fate.”
The research team published their findings in the journal Physical Review Letters.
Space-time’s hidden forces
According to quantum field theory, space is never truly empty but is instead filled with tiny vibrations. When these vibrations gain sufficient energy, they can spontaneously generate virtual particles, producing low-energy photons.
In his 1974 paper, Hawking famously theorized that the extreme gravitational pull at black holes’ event horizons could generate photons in this way. Based on Einstein’s general relativity, gravitational forces warp space-time, and this distortion becomes more severe near a black hole’s singularity.
Hawking argued that this warping creates uneven time pockets and spikes of energy, causing photons to appear in the space around black holes. These photons draw energy from the black hole, gradually causing it to lose mass and eventually evaporate entirely over vast time scales.
But this raises a question: if gravitational fields alone can produce quantum fluctuations and photons, why limit Hawking radiation to black holes? Could any massive object create it? To explore this, researchers revisited Hawking’s theory using a process known as the Schwinger effect, which predicts that matter can be generated by the distortions of strong electromagnetic fields.
Using this framework, the team developed a mathematical model showing that Hawking radiation can occur in various gravitational field strengths. Their findings suggest that an event horizon isn’t necessary for radiation to emerge—any massive object’s gravitational field can cause energy to slowly escape in the form of light.
“We demonstrate that far beyond a black hole, the curvature of space-time significantly contributes to radiation production,” said co-author Walter van Suijlekom, a mathematics professor at Radboud University. “Particles are separated there [beyond the black hole] by the tidal forces of the gravitational field.”
A fading universe
The implications of this theory remain uncertain. It suggests that as stars, planets, and neutron stars age, their matter might transition to an ultralow-energy state, eventually collapsing into black holes. These black holes, too, would emit radiation until they dissipate completely.
However, this idea is speculative and awaits experimental confirmation. Scientists would need to detect Hawking radiation near gravitationally dense objects, such as black holes, stars, planets, or neutron stars, to validate the theory. If the universe is truly destined to vanish in faint bursts of light, there should be evidence waiting to be uncovered.
