Hello, this is Eleni and these are the Astro-shots.
Subject: the “Steven Hawking phenomenon”
an astrophysics rock star!
A unique mind trapped inside a plagued body.
But he did not lose his passion for life
neither for research.
And how magnificent is the Universe that he revealed!
No other scientist until now
has intrigued and sparked
the imagination of the humanity
the way that Stephen Hawking did.
Let’s see some of the facts that made him stand out:
1. Singularity
In his doctoral thesis,
Stephen Hawking mathematically predicted
that the Universe originated from a singularity,
a size-less point of infinite density.
Even a black hole will end up in a singularity,
something that he proved mathematically in 1970,
in collaboration with the physicist Roger Penrose.
2. Hawking Radiation
By unifying of the General Theory of Relativity
and the Quantum Theory, he predicts
that a black hole is not in fact “black”.
It emits a radiation from the event horizon,
the space-time boundary beyond which
even light cannot escape.
That is due to the event horizon having a (certain) temperature
and emits like a blackbody.
This results into the black hole losing energy
and getting smaller with time,
until it vanishes.
It evaporates into the Universe!
This creates the “loss of information” paradox:
the particles devoured by the black hole
contain information.
The information is then trapped in the black hole
and will vanish along with it.
However, this contradicts the Quantum Theory that,
in fact, forbids the loss of information.
A possible suggestions by the scientific community is that
before the black hole vanishes,
it ejects the information back into the Universe,
or, on the other hand,
information is not really lost
and Hawking was just wrong.
Later on, Stephen Hawking will suggest
that the information is not actually lost
but changes its position in space
and can be located in particles surrounding the black hole,
called “hair”.
3. An ambassador of science
His book “The Brief History of Time”
became a best seller with millions of copies sold,
something unprecedented for a book of popular astrophysics.
He was an activist;
he expressed his opinion out loud
about the world, the environment,
the artificial intelligence, aliens,
euthanasia, philosophy, religion and politics.
4. What actually existed before the origin of time?
Before the Big Bang?
Before he passed away,
he gifted us with his last theory:
there existed no matter
but the plain spacetime:
the mathematical model that unites space and time.
Like he left a brainteaser for us to solve!
Rest in Peace, Stephen!
You made astrophysics popular
and you inspire us to keep on our efforts,
no matter how many obstacles we meet on our way,
and we thank you for that!
