| UPDATED: 10:47, Thu, Feb 18, 2021
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Providing a description of gravity as a geometric property of space and time, or spacetime, Einstein’s theory has important astrophysical implications as it alludes to the existence of black holes – cosmic phenomena where nothing, not even light, can escape. According to the “no-hair theorem” of his equations, black holes have three characteristics mass, spin and charge – so if those three values are the same in two black holes, it is impossible to tell them apart. But scientists have started to question this.
According to the “no-hair theorem” of his equations, black holes have three characteristics mass, spin and charge – so if those three values are the same in two black holes, it is impossible to tell them apart.
As Harvard University theoretical physicist Dr Paul Chesler puts it: “In classical general relativity, they would be exactly identical.”
But scientists have begun to wonder if the “no-hair theorem” is strictly true.
The University of Toronto’s Professor Stefanos Aretakis previously suggested that some black holes could have instabilities on their event horizons.
Einstein theory could be violated (Image: GETTY)
Einstein penned his theory more than a century ago (Image: GETTY)