Stephen Hawking was born #OTD in 1942. He developed theorems with Penrose that determine when general relativity produces singularities, established classical laws of black hole mechanics, and hypothesized that quantum effects cause black holes to radiate. 🧪 ⚛️ 🔭
Image: Santi Visalli/Getty
Image: Santi Visalli/Getty
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In 1970 Hawking proposed an “area law” for black holes: the area of the event horizon never gets smaller. This is true in general relativity, a classical theory. (3/n)
— Hawking & Ellis (1973)
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Nowadays when LIGO is running it detects the merger of black holes several times a year, via the gravitational waves they emit. (7/n)