Hawking Revises Black Hole Theory

Stephen Hawking has reconsidered his long-held opinion that black holes destroy information that goes into them. Originally he believed that when matter was added to a black hole, all aspects of the particles are stripped away, leaving only their mass and spin. Hawking has been thinking about the problem for 30 years, and now believes that the information is maintained. He has cryptically said that black holes only appear to form, but later open up and release information about what fell inside. He's expected to explain more fully at an astrophysics conference this week.