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ergosphere
Apr. 23rd, 2015 08:01 amergosphere (UHR-goh-sfeer) - n., a region outside the event horizon of a rotating black hole in which space and time are distorted by gravitational shear forces.
Specifically, all inertial frames are forced to rotate in the same direction as the black hole -- because spacetime in that region is rotating, not because energy has been applied -- so fast that it is impossible for particles within it to remain stationary. In theory, this makes it possible to extract energy from the black hole, and in 1969 Roger Penrose suggested a means of doing so. From this, the name ergosphere was coined: the (oblate) spherical region where work, Greek ergon, can be applied.
---L.
Specifically, all inertial frames are forced to rotate in the same direction as the black hole -- because spacetime in that region is rotating, not because energy has been applied -- so fast that it is impossible for particles within it to remain stationary. In theory, this makes it possible to extract energy from the black hole, and in 1969 Roger Penrose suggested a means of doing so. From this, the name ergosphere was coined: the (oblate) spherical region where work, Greek ergon, can be applied.
---L.
