
Popular Books Featuring a Black Hole
'Imperial Earth' by Arthur C. Clarke (1975)
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The Krone Experiment (1986)
The Science The novel was written by a University of Texas astrophysicist, who conceived the idea in the early 1970s and developed it over the following decade, so the science was plausible. It is indeed possible to created microscopic black holes in the laboratory. In fact, the new Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland will probably do just that. The black holes are so tiny, though, that they will instantly wink out of existence through an effect first described by Steven Hawking — something that happened to the countless micro-black holes that were created in the Big Bang. (Fearful skeptics filed lawsuits to try to prevent LHC from operating in part because of fears of a "Krone"-like result, but failed to convince the judges.) If one of the black holes were massive enough to not instantly radiate itself away, as Hawking predicted, well.... It might be best to pack your bags and look for the next interstellar shuttle. Notes Wheeler's son, J. Robinson Wheeler, directed a low-budget movie version of the book, which was released in 2005. |
The World is Round (1978)
The Science The idea of a black hole as a power source was based on a concept proposed by British physicist Roger Penrose in 1969. If a black hole is spinning, its powerful gravity actually pulls the surrounding spacetime with it, in a region known as the ergosphere. Penrose suggested that it would be possible to extract energy from the ergosphere by sending a rocket into this swirl of spacetime, where the rocket would split apart. Half of the ship would fall into the black hole, while the other half would be thrown back into space – but with much more energy than the whole ship carried in. Essentially, the exiting half would "steal" a little rotational energy from the spinning black hole. (Today's spacecraft use a similar technique to gain a free boost from a planet.) The surviving half would be captured by a sort of interstellar power station, which would convert the energy of the craft's motion to usable electricity. Although the process isn't as efficient as Penrose's original calculations suggested, Rothman's fictional idea was based on solid scientific ground. |
'For Love and Glory' by Poul Anderson (2003)
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The Science No one has ever seen two black holes merge, but Anderson's description is reasonable. The accretion disks around merging black holes certainly would stage some pyrotechnics. What you wouldn't see, but would feel from close range (as Anderson describes in the book) would be powerful "ripples" in spacetime caused by the merger. Known as gravitational waves, they might be powerful enough for Earth-based instruments (or future space-based ones) to detect, particularly for mergers inside the Milky Way or nearby galaxies. |