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<\/p>\nIt might sound like the culmination of a Bond villain’s latest evil scheme.<\/p>\n
But the world’s first ‘black hole bomb’ has officially become a reality.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This theoretical doomsday device uses a series of spinning mirrors to reflect and amplify the waves of energy escaping from a black hole.<\/p>\n
In real black holes, this energy grows exponentially until it is either vented or the whole system explodes with the power of a supernova.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, the version created in the lab is just a safe demonstration model.<\/p>\n
Instead of drawing its power from a black hole, the bomb amplifies magnetic fields through a complex series of mirrors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During testing, the black hole bomb did explode – although the scientists reassure that this was ‘nothing serious’.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Professor Danielle Faccio, co-author of the study from the University of Glasgow, said: ‘[It was] more of a “pop” than an actual explosive “bang”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, she added: ‘If one scaled this up in size, the “bang” would become more serious.’<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Scientists have created the first ever black hole bomb in the lab. This theoretical device reflects and amplifies the energy escaping from a black hole until it explodes<\/p>\n
The key to the black hole bomb is an effect known as ‘superradiance’.<\/p>\n
Professor Vito Cardoso, an expert on superradiance from the Instituto Superior T\u00e9cnico, Portugal who was not involved in the study, told MailOnline: ‘Superradiance is the phenomenon whereby radiation is amplified when it interacts with a rotating object.<\/p>\n
‘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.’<\/p>\n
There isn’t anything mysterious about taking energy from a spinning object – just think about how you gain energy by stepping onto a spinning carousel.<\/p>\n
The black hole bomb simply applies this idea to a strange quirk of black hole physics – with explosive results.<\/p>\n
Due to ‘weird and counterintuitive’ rules of general relativity, when objects spin very close to a black hole they appear to gain energy from nothing.<\/p>\n
Professor Faccio explained: ‘Seen from the outside, you will see an object or wave reflect away from the black hole and gain energy in the process.<\/p>\n
‘If you now create a surrounding cavity or mirror of some kind so that the wave gets reflected back and forth between the mirror and black hole, you will have a continuous and runaway amplification effect.’<\/p>\n
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Instead of using a black hole, the laboratory model uses a spinning aluminium cylinder to simulate the physics of superradiance which causes the black hole bomb to generate energy exponentially\u00a0<\/p>\n
How does a black hole bomb work? <\/p>\n
A black hole bomb works by exploiting an effect called superradiance.<\/p>\n
When radiation approaches a spinning black hole it gains energy before escaping.<\/p>\n
This slightly slows down the spin of the black hole like someone stepping onto a carousel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But if the energy is reflected back inwards, this speeds up the spin of the black hole and amplifies the energy again.<\/p>\n
The radiation bounces back and forth from the black hole and the mirror becomes stronger each time.<\/p>\n
Eventually, there is so much high-energy radiation that the heat and pressure overwhelm the system and it explodes.<\/p>\n
Eventually, this high amplitude energy builds up between the mirror and the black hole and heats up so much that the pressure causes the entire system to explode.<\/p>\n
Since the nearest black hole is around 1,500 light-years from Earth, testing this theory in practice has been essentially impossible.<\/p>\n
However, in their pre-print paper, the researchers demonstrated that the basic physics behind the theory really does work.<\/p>\n
Instead of using a black hole, the experimental version rotates a 4-centimetre-diameter aluminium cylinder inside three layers of metal coils which are spun around the cylinder.<\/p>\n
The rotating coils can be used to both produce a magnetic field and reflect some of the field back into the system.<\/p>\n
In this model, the coils take the place of the mirrors while the magnetic fields play the role of light spinning around a black hole.<\/p>\n
During their testing, the researchers discovered that the small, low-frequency magnetic fields were quickly amplified into much larger signals.<\/p>\n
Even without the coils producing a magnetic field, the spinning device would still generate a runaway signal just like a black hole would.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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When the aluminium cylinder is spinning faster than the frequency of the magnetic field, it amplifies it. The resulting energy is then reflected back in and amplified again<\/p>\n
While the lab-based black hole bomb isn’t nearly as powerful as a real black hole bomb, it was still capable of producing shocking amounts of power.<\/p>\n
Professor Faccio said: ‘The electrical components in our setup were literally exploding!’<\/p>\n
While you might worry that the technology could be used to make an actual bomb, Professor Faccio\u00a0insists it is ‘hard to see’ how this could happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In fact, the researchers point out that this process could be beneficial in energy collection processes like what is already happening inside wind turbines.<\/p>\n
Instead, the more terrifying possibility is creating a real black hole bomb out in space.<\/p>\n
Theoretically, this could allow you to create a limitless source of energy.<\/p>\n
Although our own civilisation isn’t yet up to the task, there is nothing to prevent another society from creating a scaled-up version of Professor Faccio’s device.<\/p>\n
Professor Cardoso says: ‘We can easily imagine a slightly more advanced civilization than us using something like this with a black hole! <\/p>\n
‘It’s amazing, extracting energy from the vacuum to power a society.’\u00a0<\/p>\n
But, just like nuclear power, a vast source of energy can quickly become a bomb if it isn’t managed correctly.<\/p>\n
‘Any piece of technology with an immense power can always be dangerous,’ concludes Professor Cardoso.<\/p>\n
‘In this particular case, a bad regulation – like nuclear plants – could lead to overproduction of radiation and therefore to explosion.’<\/p>\n