Black holes have always been the ultimate villain in universe history. The dark mass of objects that can’t even let light through is present in almost every galaxy. Our very own Milky Way galaxy has a supermassive black hole lurking in its center, which makes their study, once pioneered by physicist Stephen Hawking, critical.
Now one of Hawking’s most famous theorems has been proven by observing waves that are created in space-time by the merging of two black holes. First proposed in 1971, the theorem states that it is impossible for a black hole to lose size over time. The theorem was derived from Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, which defines gravitational waves and black holes.
The area set of the black hole has fascinated physicists all over the world because it works on the similar thermodynamic principle that entropy (perturbation) cannot decrease over time. It is steadily increasing. The new observations further solidify Einstein’s theory of relativity.
Stephen Hawking first proposed the theory in 1971. (Photo: Getty)
MEASURING BLACK HOLES
Under the direction of astrophysicist Maximiliano Isi from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the researchers used the data from gravitational waves that were created when two small black holes merged into one. They shared the gravitational wave data observed by the Advanced Laser interferometer gravitational wave observatory (LIGO) divided into two periods: before and after the merger. The scientists used the before and after measurement to calculate the surface area of the black holes in each segment.
The calculations showed that the total surface area of the combined black hole was larger than the sum of the two smaller black holes. This observation confirms the law of area, which states that the size of black holes does not decrease over time.
“The surface of a black hole cannot be reduced, which corresponds to the second law of thermodynamics. It also has conservation of mass because you cannot reduce its mass, so that’s analogous to conservation of energy,” first author Maximiliano told Live Science.
A black hole is created by the death of a star with such a high gravitational field that matter becomes trapped. (Photo: Getty)
A black hole is created by the death of a star with such a high gravitational field that the matter is squeezed into the small space below and traps the light from the dead star. The first such black hole merger was discovered in 2017 with the LIGO detectors, which recorded gravitational signals from the merging of two relatively smaller black holes that began about a billion light years from Earth.
The two black holes had 7 and 12 times the mass of the Sun and when they merged they became 18 times the mass of the Sun.
The paper was published in Physical verification letters.
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