Hawking radiation is the theoretical thermal black-body radiation released outside a

black hole’s event horizon. This is counterintuitive because once ordinary

electromagnetic radiation is inside the event horizon, it cannot escape. It is named after
the physicist Stephen Hawking, who developed a theoretical argument for its existence
in 19741.
Hawking radiation is predicted to be extremely faint and is many orders of magnitude
below the current best telescopes’ detecting ability. Hawking radiation reduces the mass
and rotational energy of black holes and is therefore also theorized to cause black hole
evaporation. Because of this, black holes that do not gain mass through other means are
expected to shrink and ultimately vanish. For all except the smallest black holes, this
happens extremely slowly. The radiation temperature is inversely proportional to the
black hole’s mass, so micro black holes are predicted to be larger emitters of radiation
than larger black holes and should dissipate faster per their mass 1.
Hawking radiation arises from the steady conversion of quantum vacuum fluctuations
into pairs of particles, one of which escaping at infinity while the other is trapped inside
the black hole horizon. This process is based on the combined models of general
relativity and quantum mechanics. Hawking radiation implies that black holes have
temperatures that are inversely proportional to their mass. Putting it another way, the
smaller a black hole is, the hotter it should glow 2.
If Hawking radiation is factual, it would mean that black holes can emit energy and
therefore shrink in size, with the tiniest of these insanely dense objects exploding rapidly
in a puff of heat (and the largest slowly evaporating over trillions of years in a cold
breeze)2. Such radiation bursts have not yet been detected, but they are of great interest
to physicists and astronomers. Hawking radiation is one of the most fascinating
phenomena in the Universe, as it connects the realms of gravity, quantum mechanics,
and thermodynamics3.