Black holes have a temperature and will eventually evaporate completely
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In 1974, physicist Stephen Hawking theorised that black holes emit radiation due to quantum effects near the event horizon — pairs of virtual particles are created, one falls in and one escapes, effectively meaning the black hole slowly loses mass. This "Hawking radiation" gives every black hole a temperature inversely proportional to its mass. A stellar-mass black hole has a temperature of about 60 nanokelvins — far colder than the cosmic microwave background. A black hole the mass of the Sun would take 10⁶⁷ years to fully evaporate.
Objects defined by the fact that nothing escapes them are slowly leaking radiation and will eventually disappear entirely — they just take longer than the current age of the universe to do so.
The Science Behind It
In 1974, physicist Stephen Hawking theorised that black holes emit radiation due to quantum effects near the event horizon — pairs of virtual particles are created, one falls in and one escapes, effectively meaning the black hole slowly loses mass. This "Hawking radiation" gives every black hole a temperature inversely proportional to its mass. A stellar-mass black hole has a temperature of about 60 nanokelvins — far colder than the cosmic microwave background. A black hole the mass of the Sun would take 10⁶⁷ years to fully evaporate.
Why Your Brain Finds This Hard to Believe
OddlyHuman Editorial
VerifiedWritten and fact-checked by the OddlyHuman Behavioral Science Team. We verify all psychological, sociological, and historical claims against peer-reviewed journals, primary sources, and established encyclopedias to bring you accurate insights.
Read our Editorial Guidelines →“Black holes slowly evaporate. It takes longer than the age of the universe — but they don't last forever.”