Anything that falls outside the event horizon of a black hole will never escape it, because it must reach a speed higher than the speed of light to achieve escape velocity from inside the black hole. However, this does not change the fact that physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking was convinced that black holes also evaporate over a cosmically long period, emitting radiation that bears his name.
The immediate surroundings of black holes are an extremely difficult environment to observe. Hence, the chances of detecting Hawking radiation by automated means seem very slim. However, in their latest work, a team of European scientists argue that there is a way in which we could theoretically be able to detect Hawking radiation using currently available ground-based observatories.
How can Hawking radiation and evaporating black holes be detected?
Scientists argue that it all depends on which black hole we’re looking at. In 2015, the newly launched LIGO gravitational wave observatory achieved something that was only theoretically possible. Highly sensitive detectors have recorded gravitational waves traveling through Earth, emitted when two black holes collide. This was a breakthrough discovery, because it was previously unknown whether we could actually confirm the existence of gravitational waves experimentally. However, nearly a decade has passed since then, and during that time researchers have discovered several merging black holes.
Authors Latest developments It suggests that the moment of black hole merger may provide a window for observing Hawking radiation. how? The researchers suggest that the process of colliding two black holes could create small black holes the size of asteroids, which would be fragments of merging black holes.
Read also: Black holes violently collide in the centers of galaxies. What’s going on there?
Hawking radiation emitted by these miniature black holes can create gamma rays that may contain a specific signature of high-energy protons.
Although we won’t see Hawking radiation from the main black holes, it is theoretically possible to see a trace of this radiation in the gamma radiation produced by the black hole fragments generated by the collision.
Miniature black holes evaporate and emit particles in every direction. This means that if such a fragment were present between observers on Earth and the merging black holes at the time of observation, the gamma-ray bursts it produces should theoretically be able to reach Earth. Moreover, scientists believe that observatories such as the HAWC (High Altitude Cherenkov Water) gamma radiation observatory, which records photons in the energy range from 100 GeV to 10 TeV, should detect such radiation reaching Earth.
Of course, before scientists start looking for specific traces confirming the existence of Hawking radiation, they still have to solve many problems. It is necessary to determine how the intense gravitational field generated by merging black holes or the relative velocities of the resulting black hole “shards” affects Hawking radiation. Taking all of these factors into account will allow researchers to decide what they should really look for in observational data.
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