"Frozen stars are a type of black hole mimickers: ultracompact, astrophysical objects that are free of singularities, lack a horizon, but yet can mimic all of the observable properties of black holes," study coauthor Ramy Brustein, a professor of physics at Ben-Gurion University in Israel, told Live Science. "If they actually exist, they would indicate the need to modify in a significant and fundamental way Einstein's theory of general relativity."
As proposed in a recent study published in the journal Physical Review D, black holes could actually be hypothetical objects called 'frozen stars.' If true, the theory would provide a more mundane physical explanation for the monstrous implications of black holes, and most importantly, solve the black hole information paradox proposed by Stephen Hawking.
By expanding on general relativity with quantum mechanics, Hawking showed that black holes should actually emit radiation due to interactions that occur near their event horizon. In this scenario, fleeting pairs of so-called virtual particles near this boundary should recombine to 'cancel out,' but are split when one falls into the event horizon.
Over time - trillions of years, perhaps - this causes the black hole to leak energy in the form of heat, and consequently shrink in mass, until it effectively evaporates.
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