It's not new, but it may be interesting for those who are unfamiliar!
The total entropy of the universe is increasing, which essentially means that the entire universe will eventually perish, as the whole system strives for disorder. The material of stars scatters throughout the universe at the end of their life, and even black holes are not immortal.
What is entropy?
In the 19th century, Rudolf Clausius discovered that the molecular disorder of material systems and the direction and probability of processes occurring within them could be described using mathematical methods. To characterize the degree of disorder, he introduced the concept of entropy. He proved that if a system is closed and does not receive heat from outside, it will tend towards greater disorder on its own, during which its entropy increases. When entropy reaches its maximum, the system reaches a state of equilibrium.
According to our current knowledge, the universe is such a closed system that continuously strives for greater disorder, meaning its entropy is increasing. Previously, the entropy of the universe was lower, and initially, it had a minimum value of entropy, indicating a very high degree of order.
It previously seemed that the existence of black holes violated the accepted principle that the entropy of the universe is increasing. Stephen Hawking managed to prove that it is not true that black holes are singularities that absorb matter in such a way that even light cannot escape from them.
The positive energy of the outgoing radiation is balanced by the flow of negative energy particles entering the black hole. According to Einstein's famous equation, energy is proportional to mass: E=mc² (where E is energy, m is mass, and c is the speed of light). The incoming negative energy thus reduces the mass of the black hole. As a result of the decrease in mass, the area of the event horizon decreases. The resulting decrease in entropy (inside the hole) is far exceeded by the increase in entropy caused by the emitted radiation, so there is no violation of the second law of thermodynamics.
The smaller the mass of the black hole, the higher its temperature. Thus, as the mass of the black hole decreases, its temperature and particle emission increase, meaning it loses mass more rapidly. It is still not entirely clear what happens when the black hole eventually becomes incredibly small. The most reasonable assumption seems to be that it completely annihilates amidst a massive final particle emission. The effect is equivalent to detonating millions of hydrogen bombs simultaneously.
Sources:
Wikipedia
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