In a first, scientists took the temperature of a sonic black hole

Lab experiments characterize a phenomenon predicted by cosmologist Stephen Hawking

black hole

NOT BLACK  Stephen Hawking first proposed that black holes (illustrated) aren’t fully black, but emit a faint haze of particles that came to be known as Hawking radiation. Now scientists have measured the radiation’s temperature in a lab analog of a black hole.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center; Background: DPAC/Gaia/ESA

Taking a black hole’s temperature is a seemingly impossible task.