From: Zardoz ®	04/11/2001 19:34:58
Subject: re: COSMOLOGY FAQ	post id: 484065
Are Black holes forever or will they die one day....and if the latter....what happens to them? From: B.C. ®. The evaporating of black holes is a quantum effect realised by Stephen Hawking. In the vacuum of space, virtual particles are continuously being created and annihilating with its anti particle. When some of these are created near a black hole, there are a number of scenarios. The one we are interested in is if one of the particle, anti particle pairs should succumb to the black hole, we will see the other escaping as radiation. The one that has been swallowed by the black hole has a negative mass energy. The black hole absorbs this negative mass energy and thereby looses mass. This procedure for normal black hole's would take longer than the life of the universe, but it is possible that quantum black hole's formed at the big bang, would be able to radiate completely away.