Astronomers last year claimed to have achieved what was thought impossible, and captured an image of a black hole, seemingly proving the existence of these mysterious objects. Yet not everyone is convinced. Black holes are so described because they were proposed as a space from which nothing can escape. At the heart of the black hole physics seemed to come to an end, its laws in tatters. Stephen Hawking, having been the first to propose black holes, at the end of his life came to argue that they did not exist - at least in the sense in which they were first described.
Is the idea of a black hole from which nothing can escape a mistake? If so, how can we resolve the paradox that they were predicted by a combination of relativity and quantum mechanics? Or should we hold onto the idea of black holes, however mysterious and problematic they are?
World renowned mathematical physicist Sir Roger Penrose, philosopher of science Bjørn Ekeberg and UCL Professor of Astrophysics Amelie Saintonge tackle the paradox of Black Holes.