Black holes are the demons of space, terrifying creatures that probably cause a lot of drama in science fiction. Except for the fact that if you ever fall into one, that's on you. Seriously, and it would suck to fall in. You would die. There are some theories of various possibility that you could end up in another world or some alternate universe or something, but more importantly you would die before you reached any other side (if there even is one).
However did you know that they also spin? Similar to how any star has spin from the collapse and leftover moment of dust and gas, black holes have lingering angular moment from the star that they collapsed from. It also doesn't stay at that speed, speeding up if more matter falls into it. The faster a black hole spins, the smaller the radius for a stable orbit becomes. That same radius is also the innermost edge of the accretion disk, a disk of rotating mater that is around a black hole when it has recently consumed something, usually a star. But, how fast can a black hole spin? And that's the question. While there is no (currently known) law of physics that puts a limit on how fast it could spin (and by extension, how small the stable orbit radius becomes) some believe that the maximum spin a black hole could have would put the inner stable circular orbit just above the event horizon. Why? Because if it went further, at went to or even beyond the event horizon, it would mean that light is able to escape from a black hole. A very weird and very theoretical idea called a "naked singularity". It's very much up to debate if they could ever actually exist, but it's a very fun theoretical possibility that technically could exist, even if it probably won't.
This post was inspired by and sources from this video by Veritasium. Please check it out for more information and other interesting facts.
However did you know that they also spin? Similar to how any star has spin from the collapse and leftover moment of dust and gas, black holes have lingering angular moment from the star that they collapsed from. It also doesn't stay at that speed, speeding up if more matter falls into it. The faster a black hole spins, the smaller the radius for a stable orbit becomes. That same radius is also the innermost edge of the accretion disk, a disk of rotating mater that is around a black hole when it has recently consumed something, usually a star. But, how fast can a black hole spin? And that's the question. While there is no (currently known) law of physics that puts a limit on how fast it could spin (and by extension, how small the stable orbit radius becomes) some believe that the maximum spin a black hole could have would put the inner stable circular orbit just above the event horizon. Why? Because if it went further, at went to or even beyond the event horizon, it would mean that light is able to escape from a black hole. A very weird and very theoretical idea called a "naked singularity". It's very much up to debate if they could ever actually exist, but it's a very fun theoretical possibility that technically could exist, even if it probably won't.
This post was inspired by and sources from this video by Veritasium. Please check it out for more information and other interesting facts.
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