Hawking radiation. Conceptual image of a black hole and Hawking radiation. A black hole (centre) is formed when the core of a star collapses under its own weight, increasing the strength of its gravitational field to the point where usually nothing, not even light, can escape. Hawking radiation consists of particle-antiparticle pairs formed from the quantum vacuum, with one particle falling into the black hole and the other escaping by quantum tunnelling. The escaping particles are known as Hawking radiation. This mechanism allows small black holes to rapidly evaporate. Hawking radiation was proposed and is named for British physicist Stephen Hawking (born 1942).