2 upvotes, 2 direct replies (showing 2)
View submission: Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science
How and why do black holes lose mass? From what I understand (and please correct if/when I'm wrong!), Hawking Radiation is the mechanism via which black holes lose mass, but Hawking radiation is caused when one the the 2 particles that pops into being gets sucked into the black hole and the other escapes? If that's the case then how does it actually cause the mass to decrease as to me it would seem logical for anything entering a black hole would increase the mass?
Comment by mfb- at 14/09/2023 at 00:15 UTC
5 upvotes, 1 direct replies
but Hawking radiation is caused when one the the 2 particles that pops into being gets sucked into the black hole and the other escapes?
This is purely a myth spread by popular science descriptions. There are no particle pairs involved and nothing falls into the black hole with Hawking radiation.
Comment by Braelind at 13/09/2023 at 20:35 UTC
0 upvotes, 0 direct replies
You got it! Quite right on everything, Hawking radiation is a VERY slow loss of mass. If our sun were a black hole, it would take 10^67 years for Hawking radiation to make it melt away. Comparatively, the universe will run out of stars in like 10^14 years. Any black hole still gaining mass will be growing faster than it is shrinking. So, don't expect to see any black holes evaporate away while any life still exists in the universe, haha.