Unveiling the enigmatic nature of black holes, physicists have stumbled upon a groundbreaking discovery. This unexpected revelation promises to redefine our understanding of these cosmic phenomena, opening new avenues in the exploration of the universe's most mysterious entities.
Black holes exert pressure on the space around them
This is consistent with Stephen Hawking’s prediction that black holes emit radiation and therefore not only have a temperature, but slowly shrink over time, in the absence of accretion.
- “If you consider black holes within only general relativity, one can show that they have a singularity in their centres where the laws of physics as we know them must break down.”
Pressure
According to the team’s calculations, it’s negative – expressed as -2E-46bar for a black hole the mass of the Sun, compared to Earth’s 1bar at sea level.
- This means exactly what it sounds like it means – the black hole would be shrinking, not growing.
Potential Implications
The finding could have interesting implications for our attempts to square general relativity (on macro scales) with quantum mechanics (which operates on extremely small scales).
- Black holes are thought to be key to this undertaking.
- Figuring out how the two regimes fit together could also help tp solve the thorny black hole problem.
