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Quanta Magazine

Black holes are the enigmatic extremes of the cosmos. Now two mathematicians prove that there is nothing in our laws of physics to prevent the formation of such a black hole

Quanta Magazine
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Black holes are the enigmatic extremes of the cosmos.

Within them, matter is packed so tightly that, according to Einstein ’s general theory of relativity, nothing can escape.

In 1973 , Stephen Hawking , John Bardeen and Brandon Carter asserted that extremal black holes can’t exist in the real world.

Now two mathematicians have proved Hawking and his colleagues wrong.

Their mathematical proof is “beautiful, technically innovative and physically surprising”.

The new study disproves Bardeen , Carter and Hawking ’s third law.

Kehle and Unger showed that they could change a typical black hole into an extremal one within a finite stretch of time.

The pair also showed that the formation of extremal black holes would not open the door to a naked singularity.