Could black holes be harvested to provide power for future off-planet colonies? It sounds — and, in some ways, certainly is — pretty far-fetched. But, according to researchers from Columbia University and Chile’s Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, it’s also possible. At least, theoretically.
“Imagine two parts of charged matter around a rotating black hole,” Felipe Asenjo, Professor of Physics at the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, told Digital Trends. “If they are in the right place, and they are pushed apart at a speed that is close to the speed of light, then one part will fall into the black hole, while the other one will gain energy escaping from it.”
The idea, in essence, is to extract energy from black holes by gathering charged plasma particles as they try to escape from the event horizon, the threshold surrounding a black hole at which escape velocity is greater than the speed of light. To put it in even broader terms: The researchers believe that it would be possible to obtain energy directly from the curvature of spacetime. (And you thought that your new solar panels were exciting!)
“For natural practical uses, we can think that this process drives the very high-energy phenomena observed around black [holes],” Asenjo continued. “But for artificial practical uses, one can think the huge black hole [could be] a source of almost unlimited energy. If we recreate the separation of the two parts of charged matter, we are able to obtain [this] energy.”
Luca Comisso, research scientist at Columbia University, noted that, so far, this is all very theoretical. “We worked out the math by using the theoretical frameworks of general relativity and plasma physics,” Comisso told Digital Trends. “Essentially, we figured out that the reconnection of magnetic field lines close to the event horizon of the black hole could extract black hole energy. Indeed, in these conditions, reconnection can produce negative energy particles, which extract energy from the black hole when they fall into the event horizon.”
To prove the robustness of this energy extraction system, the researchers next plan to carry out numerical simulations using supercomputers. Asenjo noted that the modeled system is so complex that it will require enormous computational capabilities to study it in a complete way. Fortunately, such technology exists.
What doesn’t yet exist are some of the other tools the hypothetical advanced civilization that might require this will hopefully one day develop. In other words, don’t expect this to be demonstrated for real any time soon. However, Comisso warned not to write it off as impossible.
“Of course this poses technological challenges, but as the history of humankind [teaches] us, what is impossible today might be possible tomorrow,” he said. “So I’m rather optimistic about that.”
A paper describing the work was published in the journal Nature Physics.
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.