Scientists Create a Black Hole Bomb in a Lab And Prove a 50-Year-Old Energy-Stealing Theory

Black holes have fascinated physicists for decades—mysterious cosmic beasts whose gravitational pull is so strong, not even a single ray of light can escape. What if the rotational energy of a black hole could be siphoned off? Could we simulate such situations on Earth? After 50 years of hard work, the answer is finally yes. In a stunning experiment, physicists have successfully recreated a 'black hole bomb' in the laboratory, according to Cornell University.

Researchers have created a system that mimics how energy could theoretically be extracted from a spinning black hole. An interesting point is that this experiment showcases the first real-world proof of the Zel’dovich effect, a concept that had remained purely theoretical since 1971. It all began in 1969, when famous physicist, Roger Penrose, proposed that it is possible to extract energy from a black hole’s ergosphere, the troubled region just outside its event horizon, by sending an object in that breaks apart. Intriguingly, one piece gets consumed by the black hole, while the other escapes with more energy than it started with. This is famously known as the Penrose process, stated IFL Science.

Soviet physicist Yakov Zel’dovich revamped this idea. He claimed that the same principles could also be applied to rotating objects in a laboratory, not black holes. His concept was based on a phenomenon called the rotational  Doppler effect, where waves that are bouncing off a rotating object can undergo frequency shifts. Jorge Pinochet, professor in the physics department of the Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación, explained, "Let’s imagine that we launch a particle from very far away into the ergosphere of a Kerr black hole, following a retrograde orbit, that is, a trajectory directed against the black hole’s rotational direction…Due to the extreme intensity of gravity inside a black hole, general relativity allows the absorbed fragment to have negative energy."

Moreover, a team of experts led by Dr. Marion Cromb of the University of Glasgow began their experiment with sound waves, slower but analogous in behavior. In a statement, Cromb noted, "The linear version of the Doppler effect is familiar to most people as the phenomenon that occurs as the pitch of an ambulance siren appears to rise as it approaches the listener but drops as it heads away. It appears to rise because the sound waves are reaching the listener more frequently as the ambulance nears, then less frequently as it passes," stated the University of Glasgow. The team, after their consistent efforts, was able to replicate the Zel’dovich effect more precisely.

What was the result? You may wonder? There was a runaway amplification, a feedback loop where this whole process occurred and which acted as a black hole bomb, stated IFL Science. This research proves that energy can be extracted from a spinning/rotating system in the way Penrose and Zel’dovich imagined.