Astrophysics (Index)About

Penrose process

(Penrose mechanism)
(process by which energy can be extracted from black hole's rotation)

The Penrose process (Penrose mechanism) is a mechanism consistent with black hole models that extracts energy from the rotation of a black hole. It involves an object entering the black hole's ergosphere (space frame-dragged to rotate around the black hole), and having it split in such manner that part of it escapes. In theory, the object could be a space probe programmed to separate into two parts by means of an explosion. Given some specifics, the escaping object can have more total energy than the original object, the total energy between them maintained through a reduction in the black hole's rotation.

It is not clear this happens in nature to any significant degree. The later-devised Blandford-Znajek mechanism is thought to be more likely.


(black holes)
Further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_process
https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110810105604640
https://dictionary.obspm.fr/index.php?showAll=1&formSearchTextfield=Penrose+process
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1971NPhS..229..177P/abstract
http://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu//abs/1974ApJ...191..231W/abstract
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1979ApJ...229...46K/abstract

Referenced by pages:
black hole (BH)
Blandford-Znajek mechanism (BZ process)
Kerr black hole

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