Scientists have estimated how long an evaporating black hole lives after it stops 'shining' classically. It turns out that clearing quantum information takes time that grows as the fourth power of mass, and with quantum gravity considered — exponentially with the initial area. This points to the existence of a tiny 'white' remnant that releases information extremely slowly. It's as if the last drop from a pipette takes an eternity to fall.
Black holes are not eternal: they slowly lose energy, emitting entropy — a measure of hidden information — as heat. This process was predicted by Stephen Hawking. But until now, it remained a mystery what happens at the very end, when the hole has almost disappeared and must return the captured data.
Now physicists have shown: after the main mass evaporates, a tiny white hole remains. Like a dying ember, it slowly releases information. The time for this 'cleanup' grows with the mass of the original black hole far more steeply than previously thought.
Perhaps we will be able to see the faint radiation from these remnants — maybe they are hiding under the mask of dark matter.
🎯 The complete evaporation time for a black hole with the mass of a mountain exceeds the age of the Universe by billions of times. And microscopic holes from the dawn of time may be burning out right now, and their last heat could be detected.