Stephen Hawking once said that ‘the fact is stranger than fiction and nowhere is this truer than in the case of black holes.’
If it wasn’t for him, there would be no work done in unpicking the ruinous anomalies of space-time. Stephen Hawking, a cosmologist, an author and an acclaimed British theoretical physicist has passed away aged 76. He is best known for revolutionizing the understanding of universe for mankind through his work on black holes. Stephen Hawking was not only a scientist but also a communicator of science. His discoveries and theories as a cosmologist in black hole physics were undoubtedly legendary.
Stephen Hawking Space-Time theories
The theory behind black holes was originally proposed by Cambridge don John Mitchell in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. However, rigorous mathematical theorems (of gravity equations by Einstein) were proved by Hawking. He showed that the equations broke down at some places what are called singularities and the region inside of a black hole, in particular, is that singularity. Hawking’s proof of several singularity theorems in 1970 provided conditions for gravitational singularity existence in space-time which showed that singularities are a feature of general relativity.
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Black hole theory and Hawking radiation (theory proposed):
A black hole can be described with three quantities that are its electrical charge, angular momentum, and how much mass went into it which later became famous as “No Hair Theorem”,
Stephen Hawking with the help of Brandon Carter proved the No-Hair Theorem mathematically that showed the shape and size of a black hole rotating do not depend on body’s nature that was collapsed to form it but on its rate of rotation and mass. They also came up with four laws of black hole mechanics relating surface gravity to temperature, area to entropy, and mass to energy that is similar to the laws of thermodynamics.
His work art stated that a black hole can never be smaller and that the surface area of its spherical event horizon could never decrease. He later showed that adding quantum mechanics to the game shows that black holes emitted radiation and were not really black. The virtual particles that pop in and out of existence in the peculiar quantum realm, emits such radiations. It is done in matter-antimatter pairs so one has negative energy while the other one has positive.
It was Hawking’s investigation that proved to be revolutionary. These pairs usually each other but if popping occurs around the black hole’s event horizon, it is possible that one particle is taken in and the other is rocketed off in the space. The mass of black hole would shrink if the negative-energy particles were eaten and, the object would emit a small amount of radiation.
The idea was worked out in 1974 due to which hypothesized black-hole light is most famous as Hawking radiation. Even though there is no such proof, but physicists believe that these emissions exist and hence, all the black holes eventually shrink away to nothingness till there is no matter left for them. For big black holes, this will happen on extremely long timescales. The bestselling “A Brief History of Time” made people access to cosmology and brought black holes into the public imagination.
“While there is life, there is hope”
For decades, people have marveled over how hawking fought his motor neuron disease that severely affected his body but he did not let that come in the way of his work. He still made breakthrough discoveries and research in his books for the masses. He was full of inspiration and deep thoughts. The most awe-inspiring part of being around him was that he was remarkable at how resilient and determined as said by Banks.
