Black Holes Could Be Gateways To Another Universe: Hawking

Theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking has spun yet another theory about black holes. He says that they could be "gateways to another universe". Hence, if you get caught inside one, don't fret. It just means that you can get out of it too.

Addressing almost a 1,000 at Harvard University, the 77-year-old renowned physicist talked about the groundbreaking theory. He explained that there is no physical information in black holes regarding what it absorbs. He pointed out that anything that gets into black holes can get out of it too.

"If you feel you're in a black hole, don't give up. There's a way out," Hawking said.

Hence, are black holes eternal prisons as has been surmised? They have been thought to be prisons, due to so much density in some parts that can block off everything, even light. Black holes, though, retain virtually no information about stars they were created from.

In 1974, Hawking came up with the Hawking Radiation theory that shocked the world of physics. He said that black holes tend to create and emit subatomic particles until all their energy is expended, and they totally evaporate.

It leads to two conclusions---the black holes are not totally black, and secondly, they do not last forever.

"What happens to all the particles that fell into the black hole?" Hawking asked. He added that the particles would not emerge when the black hole vanishes. Information about what goes on inside the black hole, apart from the amount of rotation and total amount of mass, may get lost.

Otherwise, if the data about the bodies forming black holes is not lost, then there is more information that is secreted from the outside world. But if it does get lost, then it would change our thinking patterns regarding science, he said.

Called the information paradox, Hawking's new theory questions the scientific rule that any available information on a system in one particular time helps to understand its state at another time period.

"For more than 200 years, we have believed in the science of determinism, that is that the laws of science determine the evolution of the universe," Hawking reflected.

"The history books and our memories could just be illusions. It is the past that tells us who we are. Without it, we lose our identity," Hawking added.