Part 7/16:
Hawking demonstrated that the particles emitted are not coming from inside the black hole but from quantum fluctuations outside its horizon. As this radiation carries energy away, the black hole shrinks and eventually vanishes. But this raises a critical question: where does the information contained within the black hole go? If the black hole disappears, does that mean the information is lost forever?
This information loss paradox struck at the core of quantum mechanics' principle that information is never destroyed. The apparent contradiction between Hawking's evaporation and quantum laws sparked a crisis in theoretical physics.