00:00Hawking radiation is the notion that black holes evaporate, losing mass over extreme
00:08periods of time and eventually disappearing.
00:10But now, according to researchers at Radboud University in the Netherlands, that might
00:14actually happen to everything in the universe eventually.
00:17They say it's not Hawking radiation per se, but something that works very similarly
00:21to it.
00:22Black holes evaporate because they are so dense their event horizons, or the threshold
00:25around a black hole which nothing can escape from, not even light, cause fluctuations in
00:29quantum fields, causing them to emit particles in the form of a cool light.
00:34But now the Radboud University research team says they've been able to mathematically
00:37produce the same evaporation in pretty much everything in the universe, using a similar
00:42radiation but one that manifests in electrical fields rather than black holes, and involves
00:46the curvature of space-time.
00:48All incredibly massive objects produce a bend in space-time, meaning fluctuations in the
00:52quantum field, just like black holes, with the researchers explaining, quote, and after
00:57a very long period, that would lead to everything in the universe eventually evaporating, just
01:01like black holes.
01:03This changes not only our understanding of Hawking radiation, but also our view of the
01:06universe and its future.
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