Scientific discoveries this week: 11-15-10
Milan, Italy – Researchers at the University of Milan in Italy have possibly shown that Hawking Radiation, predicted 36 years ago by Stephen Hawking, exists. Hawking radiation theoretically occurs when a pair of virtual particles comes into existence on the event horizon of a black hole. One of the particles flies into the black hole while the other photon is ejected into space. By building up a potential barrier by skewing the properties of glass with ultra-high energy laser pulses, the scientists were able to replicate what they thought was an event horizon. They then detected the photons emitted by the setup. In addition to expected photons, a set was emitted that did not appear to have come directly from the laser pulse. This experimental setup could prove many years of theory.