Exploring 10 Discoveries Made by Stephen Hawking on his 81 Birth Anniversary: January 8 2024

1. Gravitational singularity

A state where spacetime itself is expected to collapse catastrophically due to the extreme gravity. Therefore, a singularity cannot be identified by where or when and is by definition outside of conventional spacetime.

2. Black hole dynamics

Hawking proposed what is now known as the second law of black hole dynamics in 1970, stating that a black holes event horizon can never shrink.

3. Cosmological inflation

Hawking presented this theory in 1982. The exponential expansion of space in the early cosmos is the subject of inflation, cosmic inflation, and physical cosmology. The idea of expansion faster than light, known as cosmic inflation, gave rise to numerous additional theories about our universe.

4. Black hole mechanics laws

Hawking created the Black Hole Area Theorem, aka the law of Black Hole mechanics, between 1971 and 1972. According to the rule, the black holes entire surface area can never decrease. This is because, over time, the black hole does produce particles, but at an incredibly tiny rate—far too little to be noticed. This means that the black holes size is unchanged.

5. Singularities

A singularity is a location or area in a certain place and time when gravity leads matter, which is a component of the universe with mass, to have an infinite density or an infinite amount of mass per unit volume. This theory also called the Hawking Singularity Theorem, postulates that singularities are created by gravitational force and that a black hole forms from them, preventing light from escaping.

6. The wavefunction of the universe

The universes wavefunction In 2006, Hawkings theory of Top-Down Cosmology showed that there were multiple alternative initial conditions in the universe instead of a single, unique initial state. Indeed, the idea that contemporary physicists retrace the histories of the cosmos backwards is the foundation of this theory.

7. Hawking energy

Despite the fact that black holes typically engulf everything, Stephen Hawking predicted that they occasionally release radiation, or energy. We call that type of radiation Hawking Radiation.

8.The Big Bang Theory

A physical theory that Stephen Hawking himself explains. Hawkings theory explains how the cosmos grew from a low-density beginning state to a high density state. However, this theorys postulate claims that all of the matter in the cosmos originated simultaneously. It is estimated that this occurred 13.8 billion years ago.

9. A universe without spacetime boundaries

Stephen Hawking conducted a great deal of research on time and space. This physicist demonstrated, in one way or another, that space-time limits do not exist in the cosmos. He thought that time and space could not exist before the Big Bang based on this observation. This demonstrated that there are no space-time limits in the universe.

10. A Brief History of Time

Hawking wrote a whole book on this theory and titled it the same. He concluded that the cosmos could be infinite but finite. Put another way, it might just exist with a limited supply of matter and energy rather than having a beginning or end in space and time. The same book chapter also discusses the idea of quantum gravity.