Evidence for Stephen Hawking's unproven black hole theory may have just been found

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Scientists are baffled by the unexpected finding of a neutrino with incredible force. According to recent studies, it might be proof that Stephen Hawking was correct regarding the early cosmos and the nature of black holes.

The renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking proposed a theory fifty years ago that the cosmos might have been overrun with small black holes as a result of the Big Bang. Scientists now think they might have witnessed one blow up.

The finding of a tremendously potent neutrino was revealed in February 2025 by the European partnership KM3NeT, which is made up of undersea detectors off the shores of France, Italy, and Greece. With an energy of about 100 PeV, this spectral particle was more than 25 times more energetic than the particles accelerated at the Large Hadron Collider, the most potent atom-splitting machine in the world.

It has been difficult for physicists to explain such an energetic neutrino. However, a group of scientists who were not part of the initial discovery have recently put out an unexpected theory: the neutrino is an indication of a black hole that is evaporating. In a manuscript that was posted to the arXiv database, the researchers detailed their concept; it has not yet undergone peer review.

Hawking's elephant-size black holes

Hawking discovered that black holes aren't completely black in the 1970s. Rather, they can produce a steady but sluggish stream of radiation, now referred to as Hawking radiation, through intricate interactions between the black hole event horizon and the quantum fields of space-time. In other words, black holes gradually evaporate and vanish. The black hole actually emits more radiation as it grows smaller, until it practically bursts into a conflagration of high-energy particles and radiation, such as the neutrino discovered by the KM3Net project.

However, every known black hole is enormous, frequently far larger than the sun and at least a few times its mass. Even the smallest black holes will not die for far over 10^100 years. The KM3NeT neutrino must be substantially smaller, perhaps 22,000 pounds (10,000 kilograms), if it is caused by an erupting black hole. Compressed into a black hole the size of an atom, that would weigh roughly the same as two fully grown African elephants.

The chaotic circumstances of the early Big Bang, which may have inundated the universe with "primordial" black holes, are the only known possible source of such tiny black holes. Larger primordial black holes may still exist today, but the tiniest ones created during the Big Bang would have burst long ago.

Sadly, a black hole weighing 22,000 pounds shouldn't have survived from the Big Bang to the present. However, the scientists noted that black holes may be able to withstand decay through an extra quantum mechanism called "memory burden" This would enable a black hole weighing 22,000 pounds to last for billions of years before exploding and launching a high-energy neutrino in the direction of Earth.

Dark matter, the invisible material that makes up the majority of the universe's matter, may be explained by primordial black holes, however searches for them have so far shown no results. This fresh realization might offer a fascinating hint. The scientists discovered that primordial black holes of this mass range ought to be erupting very regularly if they are numerous enough to explain all of the dark matter. They estimated that if this hypothesis is right, the KM3NeT collaboration should see another showstopping neutrino in the next few years.

We could need to drastically change our perspective on dark matter, high-energy neutrinos, and perhaps the physics of the early cosmos if that discovery is made.

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