Jindvik:<br /><br />Yes, a Black Hole can "evaporate."<br /><br />Steven Hawking stated the mechanism, which appears as "Hawking Radiation." This is where there is a net output of energy *from* a Black Hole that, according to earlier theories, shouldn't, couldn't happen.<br /><br />There's the creation of particle/anti-particle pairs, way down at the level of the Quantum "Foam," which you may also have heard of as "ZPE" (Zero Point Energy), also known as the zero-point field.<br /><br />Normally, they appear, and then annihilate themselves in an instant. But Hawking showed how they could literally "bleed off" energy from a singularity.<br /><br />If one of these pairs appears right on the edge of the event horizon, there's a finite probability that instead of annihilating each other, one member of the pair would be captured, and the other could escape. <br /><br />Thus the appearance of an energy output from something that shouldn't *have* an output of energy! (this doesn't count things such as infalling matter, which heat through friction, and emit high-energy gammas, x-rays, etc. Different mechanism).<br /><br />As well, it is possible for the escaping member of the pair to gain some energy in the process. If this happens enough times, over a very long period of time (hundreds of millions of years at least), enough energy could be drawn from a black hole to take it under the mass/energy limit to even *exist* as a black hole.<br /><br />At that point, according to theory, it would simply "detach" from our space/time continuum. In short, it would just vanish, never to be seen again.<br /><br />Hope that answers your question. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis: </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>