Legendary physicist Stephen Hawking has expanded his theories on black holes, claiming they are portals to another universe.
Undermining previous research that claims whatever falls into a black hole is never seen again, the 74-year-old argues they are safer than first thought.
In his latest scientific paper, published in Physical Review Letters , Hawking has now claimed you could travel through a black hole and survive - although he admits you'd probably come out the other side in a different universe, and there'd be no going back.
According to Hawking and fellow theorists Andrew Strominger of Harvard and Malcolm Perry of Cambridge University, the answer lies in black holes' zero-energy particles, known as "soft hair", which store information on the black hole's horizon - the invisible boundary that is the point of no return.
Hawking and his fellow researchers seem to think these hairs could solve the central paradox of black holes, backing up the basic laws of the universe which state that anything that has ever existed is preserved via its information.
The British physicist has been arguing his case on black holes for decades. Last year,he made a speech at Harvard University, claiming they "aren't the eternal prisons they were once thought" due to them having a "back door".
"Things can get out of a black hole, both from the outside and possibly through another universe," he said. “If you feel you are trapped in a black hole, don’t give up. There is a way out."
He added: "The existence of alternative histories with black holes suggests this might be possible. The hole would need to be large and if it was rotating it might have a passage to another universe. But you couldn't come back to our universe.”
Hawking has made other crazy claims in the past when it comes to black holes. Last year he said we could power the whole of human society if only we could somehow harness the energy of a mountain-sized black hole.
However, he admitted that if we failed to control it, it could sink into the middle of the Earth and begin feasting on human beings, our home planet and eventually the entire solar system.
