Stephen Hawking presents new theory on black holes

Jan Petter Myklebust summarizes, "Cambridge University Professor Stephen Hawking has proposed a new theory of black holes, arguing that information lost in black holes could be stored in alternate universes and that some black holes could be passages to them.

Photo: Stephen Hawking

Speaking at a ‘Hawking Radiation’ conference this week in Stockholm, Hawking said the message of his lecture was that black holes “ain't as black as they are painted".

“They are not the eternal prisons they were once thought to be,” he said. “Things can get out of a black hole both on the outside and possibly come out in another universe.”

Hawking said the existence of alternative histories with black holes suggested this might be possible. But the hole would need to be large and, if it was rotating, it might have a passage to another universe. Then again, travellers could not return to our universe.

“So although I’m keen on space flight, I'm not going to try that,” he joked.

Information paradox
Co-sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Nordic Institute of Theoretical Physics, Cambridge University and the Julian Schwinger Foundation, the conference drew 3,000 people to hear Hawking speak in an open lecture.

He received a standing ovation on entering the Stockholm Waterfront Congress Centre.

The next day, Hawking further elaborated his new theory on black holes at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology. KTH published a video-cut of the presentation.
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Source: University World News