So, if you ever happen to be trapped inside a Black Hole worry no more, because the eternal abyss might in fact let you escape it. Sort of.

According to the new paper, Professor Hawking might have found a way ‘by which information is returned out of the black hole.’

Professor Hawking made interesting comments last year when he said that Black Holes aren’t eternal prisons like we have thought them to be and that its possible that there is a way that would allow data to escape from them.

Now, a peer-reviewed paper presented by Professor Hawking expands this theory confirming that the answer lies in so-called ‘zero-energy’ particles, aka ‘Soft Hair’ that are found on the black hole’s event horizon.

The new paper challenges previous theories which assume that anything that gets ‘sucked into’ Black Holes is lost forever. The new study published by Professor Hawking has brought science a step closer to understanding the mysterious cosmic objects known as black holes, considered by astrophysicist the most enigmatic objects in the cosmos.

Professor Hawking has cooked up a new explanation for how Black Holes are able to simultaneously retain and erase information.

The new study was published on arXiv, allowing the scientific community to review and check his work.

The study has now been peer-reviewed, and the new paper was successfully published in the prestigious Journal Physical Review Letters.

Speaking at a lecture at Harvard University, Professor Hawking said: ‘They are not the eternal prisons they were once thought,’ reports The New York Times.

‘If you feel you are trapped in a black hole, don’t give up. There is a way out,’ added Professor Hawking.

Over forty years ago, Professor Hawking proposed that Black Holes were capable of radiating particles and that the energy lost in the process could cause black holes to shrink in size and eventually disappear. This theory was revised last year by the professor himself who concluded that Black Holes aren’t black, but ‘grey.’

According to the so-called ‘Grey Hole Theory’, matter and energy are held for a period of time before they are again released into space. And while this was theorized in previous studies, the mechanism by which the information was released was completely unknown until now. The new study provides an explanation:

There are particles that are located on the event horizon, which is the boundary of the Black (Gray) hole. These particles consist of photons and gravitons –subatomic packest of light and gravitational energy.

According to the new theory, the low, or zero-energy quantum particles deposited on the boundary of the black hole are able to ‘capture’ and store data, stripped from the particles that fall into the black hole.

This actually means that data is gone, and not. The particles which fall into the black hole are gone, but their information survives lingering at the edge of the black holes in ‘soft hair’ of quantum particles.

This means that information can survive in Black Holes, even though it might be extremely hard to decipher.

Researchers believe that even though more work is needed, the new study is a promising step forward in solving the ‘information paradox’ one of the greatest scientific enigmas, which has not only fascinated Professor Hawking, but many other researchers.

Journal Reference:

No Escape From Black Holes? Stephen Hawking Points to a Possible Exit