Physicists build light-based black hole analogue and observe Hawking radiation

A team led by Dr. Lorenz M. Procopio at the University of Paderborn created a laboratory black hole analogue made of light. The object began to "evaporate," allowing researchers to observe the equivalent of Hawking radiation feedback — a quantum effect predicted by Stephen Hawking but never directly measured near a real black hole. The experiment marks a major breakthrough in theoretical physics.