PBS Space Time

Hawking Radiation

October 4, 2026·15 min
Episode Description from the Publisher

Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you 😃) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: https://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACEUploaded 15-03-18It’s the most famous prediction of perhaps the most famous genius of our time ... Stephen Hawking's theory of Hawking Radiation.You can further support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetimeGet your own Space Time t­-shirt at http://bit.ly/1QlzoBiTweet at us! @pbsspacetimeFacebook: facebook.com/pbsspacetimeEmail us! pbsspacetime [at] gmail [dot] comComment on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/pbsspacetimeHelp translate our videos!https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?tab=2&c=UC7_gcs09iThXybpVgjHZ_7gQuantum Vacuum Playlisthttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsPUh22kYmNAHB1W2_Ka2F83sObdczwKrPrevious Episode:Should Space be Privatized?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ7d503fN-gSoon after Einstein revealed his great general theory of relativity in 1915, physicists realized that it allowed for the possibility of catastrophic gravitational collapse. In places of extreme density like the dead core of a massive star, space and time could be dragged inwards to create a hole in the universe: a boundary in spacetime called an event horizon that could be entered, but from beyond which nothing could return. Once formed, there was nothing in theory or imagination that could bring material consumed back to the outside universe. These black holes should exist forever – only growing, never shrinking.References:Black Hole Explosions?S. W. Hawking (1974) https://www.nature.com/articles/248030a0 (paywall)Particle Breation by Black HolesS. W. Hawking (1975)https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02345020 (paywall)https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.cmp/1103899181Hawking Radiation as TunnelingM. K. Parikh and F. Wilczek (2002)https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9907001Hosted by Matt O'DowdWritten by Matt O'Dowd and Graeme GosselProduced by Rusty WardGraphics by Grayson BlackmonAssistant Editing and Sound Design by Mike Petrow and Linda HuangMade by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com)Special thanks to our Patreon Big Bang, Quasar and Hypernova Supporters: Big BangCoolAsCatsDavid NicklasFaisal SaudAnton LifshitsJoey RednerQuasarTambe BarsbayMayank M. MehrotaMars YenturMark RosenthalDean FuquaRoman PinchukColeslawPurdieHypernovaMatthew O’ConnorEugene LawsonMartha HuntJoseph SalomoneChuck ZegarCraig PetersonJordan YoungRatfeastJohn HofmannBarry HatfieldEdmund FokschanerKevin CostelloThanks to our Patreon Gamma Ray Burst Supporters: James HughesFabian OlesenKris FernetJane MeyersJames FlowersGreg AllenTJMadisionDenys IvanovNick VirtueAlexey EromenkoNicholas RoseScott GossettMark VasilePatrick MurraySultan AlkhulaifiAlex SetoMichal-Peanut KarmiErik SteinDaniel LyonsKevin WarneJJ BagnellJ RejcAvi GoldfingerJohn PettitFlorian StinglmayrBenoit Pagé-GuitardNathan LenizBrandon LabonteDavid CraneGreg Weiss Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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