Lab-Created 'Sound Black Hole' Could Prove Hawking's Theory

26.04.2016

Professor Stephen Hawking could finally win a Nobel Prize, as an Israeli

scientist proves the professor's theory may be correct by creating a black
hole in his laboratory.
A scientist from Israel may have finally helped to prove one of the world's most famous
theories is in fact, correct.
Research by Professor Hawking, a cosmologist at Cambridge University, disputed the notion
that black holes are a gravitational sink hole that pulls in matter and never allows anything
to escape, even light.
Back in 1974, Professor Hawking made groundbreaking claims that black holes are actually
slowly evaporating.
His theory said particles could rob black holes of their energy, making them disappear at a
minuscule rate as they release everything they had once swallowed in a trickle of dust.
For years scientists have been plagued by the existence of black holes and have questioned
whether Professor Hawking's theory is in fact true.
Now for the first time, one scientist in Israel may have proven that what Professor Hawking
has been saying for many years is right.
Professor Jeff Steinhauer, who teaches Physics at the Technion University in Haifa, has
created something similar to a "black hole" in his laboratory.
In a paper published on the physics pre-print website arXiv, Professor Steinhauer describes
how he cooled helium close to zero, roughly minus 459 degrees Fahrenheit and moved it
around so quickly that a sound barrier was created and no sound could pass through it
much like light in a black hole.
Professor Steinhauer says the phonons the energy that makes up sound waves were
escaping from the "sound black hole," much like in Hawking's theory.
If this proves to be correct, Professor Hawking could finally win a Nobel peace prize for his
work.

However, Professor Steinhauer's work has been met with slight skeptism amongst the scientist
community, who are currently looking for alternative reasons as to why the particles may
have leaked.
At packed Sanders Theatre, Stephen Hawking tackles contradictory qualities of black holes
Nevertheless, the development could open up a bizarre vision of the universe in which black
holes can cough themselves into nothingness, Hawking said during his recent lectures
at Harvard.
"This raises a serious problem that strikes at the heart of our understanding of science If
determinism, the predictability of the universe, breaks down with black holes, it could break
down in other situations," Hawking said.
"Even worse, if determinism breaks down, we can't be sure of our past history, either. The
history books and our memories could just be illusions."