Hawking offers up black hole escape

Stephen Hawking has a mind-bending update to his theory about black holes, the bizarre objects that cemented his reputation as the world's most famous living scientist. If confirmed, the theory could allow light to escape a black hole's pull in certain circumstances. As traditionally defined, a black hole is so dense that its powerful gravity generates an event horizon. Once past this point, nothing, not even light, can escape. Then, in 1974, Hawking added quantum mechanics to the black hole picture and found that they aren't quite black. Instead, they should emit small amounts of Hawking radiation, causing them to shrink and eventually evaporate.