The world’s first ‘black hole bomb’ has been created, and while it sounds like something out of a movie, its implications are very real.
Stand back everyone, science and space have taken the wheel and created something that you could only hope to read about in your sci-fi book stash.
Of course, you might be wondering what on Earth this means, and I’m going to explain it to you.
Let’s get into the science of this.
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This theoretical device comprises of spinning mirrors to reflect and amplify waves of energy coming from black holes.
In real-life, black holes release energy at a crazy rate until they vent itself or explode as a supernova.
That’s not great news if you’re a planet sitting beside it, but thankfully, we’re a little away from any known holes.
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Anyway, the small ‘bomb’ scientists created in a lab draws its power from a black hole and then amplifies the magnetic fields through the mirrors.
The test bomb - which is just a model - exploded as scientists were carrying out a series of tests, which Professor Danielle Faccio, co-author of the study from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, said: “[It was] more of a ‘pop’ than an actual explosive ‘bang’.”
Scarily, she did note that if the bomb was bigger, the scale of the explosion would ‘become more serious’.
The bomb uses the 'superradiance' effect, which is the process whereby energy waves are amplified by a rotating black hole.
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Professor Vito Cardoso, an expert at the Instituto Superior Técnico, explained to MailOnline: “Superradiance is the phenomenon whereby radiation is amplified when it interacts with a rotating object.
“In simple terms: if you send sound or electromagnetic waves of very low frequency to a spinning cylinder then certain ‘modes’ will come back with more energy! In other words, energy is transferred from spinning objects to radiation.”
What this means is that if the bomb could get to a black hole that poses a threat, it might be able to explode it by feeding back more energy until it pops.
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The closest black hole to Earth is approximately 1,500 light-years away, which makes any hope of practice impossible, but the researchers have already demonstrated that in theory, it could work if they could deliver the bomb there.
The rotating four-centimetre-diameter aluminium cylinder encapsulated inside of three layers of metal coils can produce a magnetic field and also reflect some of the field back into the system, amplifying low-frequency magnetic fields to produce shocking amounts of power.
Professor Faccio said: “The electrical components in our setup were literally exploding!”
It might also be able to create a limitless source of energy.
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Professor Cardoso explained: “We can easily imagine a slightly more advanced civilization than us using something like this with a black hole!
“It's amazing, extracting energy from the vacuum to power a society.”
But if it was to be handled incorrectly, it could mean catastrophic events for our planet.
Topics: Science, Technology, Space
Britt Jones