Primordial Black Holes

  • Released Tuesday, May 7, 2024
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This artist's concept takes a fanciful approach to imagining small primordial black holes. In reality, such tiny black holes would have a difficult time forming the accretion disks that make them visible here.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

This artist's concept takes a fanciful approach to imagining small primordial black holes. In reality, such tiny black holes would have a difficult time forming the accretion disks that make them visible here.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Animated version of the above.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

This artist's concept takes a fanciful approach to imagining small primordial black holes. In reality, such tiny black holes would have a difficult time forming the accretion disks that make them visible here. Brief, animated GIF.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

This artist's concept takes a fanciful approach to imagining small primordial black holes. In reality, such tiny black holes would have a difficult time forming the accretion disks that make them visible here. Brief, animated GIF.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Stephen Hawking theorized that black holes can slowly shrink as radiation escapes. The slow leak of what’s now known as Hawking radiation would, over time, cause the black hole to simply evaporate. This infographic shows the estimated lifetimes and event horizon –– the point past which infalling objects can’t escape a black hole’s gravitational grip –– diameters for black holes of various small masses.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Stephen Hawking theorized that black holes can slowly shrink as radiation escapes. The slow leak of what’s now known as Hawking radiation would, over time, cause the black hole to simply evaporate. This infographic shows the estimated lifetimes and event horizon –– the point past which infalling objects can’t escape a black hole’s gravitational grip –– diameters for black holes of various small masses.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

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NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. However, individual items should be credited as indicated above.

This page was originally published on Tuesday, May 7, 2024.
This page was last updated on Tuesday, May 7, 2024 at 9:20 AM EDT.

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