Over four decades ago, renowned English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, Stephen Hawking proposed that not everything that comes in contact with a black hole succumbs to its unfathomable nothingness and immense gravity.

Photons (tiny particles of light) are sometimes ejected, robbing the black hole of an infinitesimal amount of energy, and this gradual loss of mass over time means every black hole eventually evaporates out of existence.

These escaping particles are known as Hawking radiation and it has answered a lot of questions about how these mysterious phenomena actually work. However, because this radiation is so delicate, it is impossible to detect it from thousands of light-years away. So far, no one has actually been able to prove it exists.

But it is 2016 and Jeff Steinhauer, a physicist from an Israeli university, might have found a solution and he recently shared his research findings online, stating that he has found a way to create a man-made black hole inside a lab -if we can’t detect Hawking radiation in actual black holes thousands of light-years away using our best instruments, why not bring the black holes to us?

Jeff Steinhauer’s finding have been shared online and it shows how he created and observed a black hole he made himself.

In the report, Steinhauer said he cooled helium to almost absolute zero, and then churned it up so fast that it created a barrier where sound could not pass. He then referred to it as a sound black hole. In the research, the phonons, which are the smallest energy units of sound, were able to “leak” out of the black hole, which means that it does not consume everything, nor let anything escape, as Hawking has long been claiming.

This development means more than just a development in a theory that had previously come to a standstill. It might also finally give the English genius a chance to win a Nobel Prize.

Although Hawking’s theory has got a lot of support through the years despite the fact that there was no actual proof, science’s biggest prize is not awarded unless there is “experimental proof” of a person’s theory or hypothesis.

With Jeff Steinhauer being able to create his own black hole and finally observe how Hawking’s hypothesis actually happens, things should change soon.

Roqeebah

Creative mind. Enthusiast. Learner. Multipotentialite. And here, an assistant editor.