What is "Hawking" radiation?

Originally posted by nihilismor
It is attributed to the great Stephen Hawking; this I understand.

Can someone please break down the idea in layman's terms?

It has to do with black holes, where because virtual particles actually exits, but they are created in pairs, if they are near a black hole, one particle comes into existence with its partner but one goes in and one gets out, making look like the black hole is radiating. It is supposed to suck energy out of the black hole so they have a certain lifespan at the end, blowing up into what is called a 'white hole'. So this radiation is due to these particles breaking up, getting divorced, so to speak.