Physics
A black hole bomb – an idea first proposed in 1969 – has now been realised in the lab as a toy model made from a rotating cylinder and magnetic coils. Studying the bomb could help us better understand real black holes.
By Alex Wilkins
Feed a black hole enough energy and you could create an explosion
Art Furnace/Shutterstock
Physicists have built the first ever black hole bomb, a long-theorised phenomenon where energy is boosted by a black hole and trapped by surrounding mirrors until an explosion occurs. Thankfully, this version is just a safe toy model rather than using a real black hole in space, but as the physical principles are identical, studying it could help researchers better understand how real black holes spin.
The idea of extracting energy from a black hole was first proposed in 1969 by physicist Roger Penrose. He…
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