A new theory has radically revised an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist Stephen Hawking’s 1974 theory of black holes to predict that all objects with mass may finally disappear.

In a paper published in 1974, Hawking famously predicted that the extreme gravitational force felt at the mouths of black holes — their event horizons — would summon photons into existence in this way. Gravity, according to Einstein’s theory of general relativity, distorts space-time, so that quantum fields get more warped the closer they get to the immense gravitational tug of a black hole’s singularity.

Hawking’s most famous theory about black holes has just been given a sinister update — one that proclaims that everything in the universe is doomed to evaporate.

In 1974, Hawking proposed that black holes eventually evaporate by losing what’s now known as Hawking radiation — a gradual draining of energy in the form of light particles that spring up around black holes’ immensely powerful gravitational fields. Now, a new update to the theory has suggested that Hawking radiation isn’t just created by stealing energy from black holes, but from all objects with enough mass.

Hawking did propose a concept known as “Hawking Radiation,” which suggests that black holes can gradually lose mass and energy over time and eventually evaporate. This phenomenon is based on quantum mechanical effects near the event horizon of a black hole. However, it is important to note that Hawking radiation is primarily applicable to black holes and not the entire universe.

Regarding the fate of the universe as a whole, the prevailing scientific understanding is that it will undergo a process called “heat death” or “the Big Freeze.” This theory is based on the observation that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate.

As a result, galaxies will eventually become isolated, and stars will burn out. Over vast amounts of time, the universe will become cold and dark, with no sources of usable energy remaining.

As the universe continues to expand, the available energy for processes such as star formation and other forms of activity will diminish. Eventually, stars will exhaust their fuel, and new stars will cease to form. Over time, stellar remnants like white dwarfs and black holes will also radiate away their energy, resulting in a state of maximum entropy or thermodynamic equilibrium. This state is often referred to as “heat death” since the universe will reach a uniform temperature, and all energy will be evenly distributed.

One of Hawking’s notable contributions was his work on black holes, where he proposed the concept of Hawking radiation. According to this theory, black holes can slowly lose mass over time and eventually “evaporate” due to the emission of particles.

However, this process would take an extremely long time for most black holes, far longer than the current age of the universe.

If the theory is true, it means that everything in the universe will eventually disappear, its energy slowly bled from it in the form of light. 

That means that objects without an event horizon [the gravitational point of no return beyond which nothing, not even light, can escape a black hole], such as the remnants of dead stars and other large objects in the universe, also have this sort of radiation,” lead author Heino Falcke, a professor of astrophysics at Radboud University in the Netherlands, said in a statement. “And, after a very long period, that would lead to everything in the universe eventually evaporating, just like black holes. This changes not only our understanding of Hawking radiation but also our view of the universe and its future.”

What the researchers’ theory means, in reality, isn’t clear. Possibly, as the matter that makes up stars, neutron stars, and planets ages, it will eventually undergo an energy transition into a completely new ultralow energy state. This might be enough to eventually collapse all matter into black holes, which could continue to slowly drip out light until they too disappear without a trace.