Question: How does a black hole disappear? Can it explode?

Steven Thomson answered on 15 Jun 2015:

We actually think that black holes slowly evaporate – they emit a form of light called Hawking radiation (named after Stephen Hawking). Each photon of light carries away some of the energy of the black hole, and eventually it gives out all of its energy and quietly disappears.

At least, that’s our current theory. Most black holes have so much energy they’ll almost certainly outlast the rest of the universe, so we may never know for sure.