Chapter 7 Black Holes Ain't So Black Summary and Analysis

While it is true that a black hole has extremely powerful gravity that disallows any particles to escape from its influence, the event horizon does, theoretically, allow for a certain amount of radiation. This thinking takes into account the behavior of matter particles and virtual particles as they fall into the event horizon. Some of the particles match up with their anti-particles, some cause the emission of other particles.

An implication of this possibility for radiation is that black holes might be detected by observing the low-level radiation. Gamma ray detection is currently done on a regular basis, and some researchers have attempted to find black hole gamma radiation, but so far the attempts have not been successful. The reason physicists want to detect black holes is that finding them in...