Stephen Hawking: Black holes do not exist

'The absence of event horizons means that there are no black holes - in the sense of regimes from which light can’t escape to infinity.'

17:47 27 January 2014

Cambridge University astrophysicist professor Stephen Hawking has published a paper claiming that black holes do not exist, going against his own prior theories.

In the paper entitled Information Preservation and Weather Forecasting for Black Holes, the professor argued that event horizons – an invincible boundary believed to surround black holes – do not exist.

He wrote: “The absence of event horizons means that there are no black holes - in the sense of regimes from which light can’t escape to infinity.”

He also told science journal: “There is no escape from a black hole in classical theory, [but quantum theory, however,] “enables energy and information to escape from a black hole.”

The professor’s claim attempts to address the “black-hole” firewall paradox, which puzzled scientists who found conflicting results when they tried to establish what would happen if an astronaut fell into a black hole.