Figure 12-50Evaporation of a Black Hole Throughout the universe, pairs of virtual particles spontaneously appear and disappear so quickly that they do not violate any laws of nature. The tidal force just outside the event horizon of a black hole is strong enough to tear apart two virtual particles that appear there before they destroy each other. The gravitational energy that goes into separating them makes them real and, therefore, permanent. At least one of each pair of newly created particles falls into the black hole. Sometimes the other particle escapes into the universe. Here, we see just a few particles in the making: an electron (e⁻), a positron (e⁺), and a pair of photons (γ).