Escaping A Black Hole Might Be Possible, New Research Suggests

Black holes are terrifying. Perhaps the scariest thing about them is that there is no escape from a black hole. Or is there?

New research suggests that it may be possible to escape the immense gravitational pull of an object that can "bend" space.

A new report, "Black Hole Evaporation Rates Without Spacetime," published in Physical Review Letters, suggests that "gravity may not be a fundamental force of nature," according to The University of York. Instead, gravity may be one of the "emergent properties within a deeper theory."

Professor Samuel Braunstein, one of the study leaders, said, "Our results didn't need the details of a black hole's curved space geometry. That lends support to recent proposals that space, time and even gravity itself may be emergent properties within a deeper theory."

According to the other study leader, Dr. Manas Patra, "We cannot claim to have proven that escape from a black hole is truly possible, but that is the most straight-forward interpretation of our results."

In 2004, astrophysicist Stephen Hawking admitted he may have been wrong in declaring that black holes destroy everything, and information may actually be able to escape, the Associated Press reported. Hawking said in 2004, "A black hole only appears to form but later opens up and releases information about what fell inside. So we can be sure of the past and predict the future."

The largest black hole ever measured weighs a mass of 6.6 billion suns, Wired Science reports. In June, a baby black hole was thought to be observed devouring a star that wandered too close.