Escape from a black hole? Not in this Universe (Synopsis) [Starts With A Bang]

“Not only does God play dice, but… he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen.” -Stephen Hawking

The New York Times ran an article on Stephen Hawking promising there was a possible escape route from a black hole, after all. In the text, Hawking asserts,

“They are not the eternal prisons they were once thought. If you feel you are trapped in a black hole, don’t give up. There is a way out.”

While it might appear that matter escapes a black hole, this is only from matter well outside of the event horizon at all times. Image credit: ESO/MPE/Marc Schartmann.

But what the actual scientific paper says is very different from that. Not only is there no way to escape from a black hole, the only new information provided is that, perhaps, there’s a mechanism that may lead to information about infalling particles becoming permanently encoded on the black hole’s surface, and then becoming a part of the outgoing Hawking radiation many ages of the Universe later.

Artist’s impression of a black hole. Image credit: XMM-Newton, ESA, NASA.

Sorry, Stephen Hawking fans; you can’t escape from a black hole, at least, not in this Universe.

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1VLft56

“Not only does God play dice, but… he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen.” -Stephen Hawking

The New York Times ran an article on Stephen Hawking promising there was a possible escape route from a black hole, after all. In the text, Hawking asserts,

“They are not the eternal prisons they were once thought. If you feel you are trapped in a black hole, don’t give up. There is a way out.”

While it might appear that matter escapes a black hole, this is only from matter well outside of the event horizon at all times. Image credit: ESO/MPE/Marc Schartmann.

But what the actual scientific paper says is very different from that. Not only is there no way to escape from a black hole, the only new information provided is that, perhaps, there’s a mechanism that may lead to information about infalling particles becoming permanently encoded on the black hole’s surface, and then becoming a part of the outgoing Hawking radiation many ages of the Universe later.

Artist’s impression of a black hole. Image credit: XMM-Newton, ESA, NASA.

Sorry, Stephen Hawking fans; you can’t escape from a black hole, at least, not in this Universe.

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1VLft56