Black hole radiation. Artwork of the radiation predicted to be emitted by a black hole. Produced due to quantum effects, this radiation is also known as Hawking radiation or Bekenstein-Hawking radiation. This 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. Normally, nothing can escape the immense gravitational pull of a black hole, but this mechanism allows small black holes to rapidly evaporate.