On which planets should we look for highly developed extraterrestrial civilizations? New research

Highly developed alien civilizations can use miniature black holes orbiting their planets as energy sources. Therefore, extraterrestrial life can and should be looked for on planets with satellites in the form of such black holes. This is the conclusion reached by astronomers from Harvard University, who published a new study in the journal Research Notes of the AAS (RNASS).

The scientists' hypothesis is based on the calculations of Nobel laureate Roger Penrose, who in 1971 proposed a way to extract energy from a rotating black hole. Penrose argued that by creating a line around the accretion disk of a black hole, it is possible to accelerate the falling matter almost to the speed of light and release a huge amount of energy.

In a new study, astronomy professor Avi Loeb described a system where a miniature black hole with a mass of only 100,000 tons rotates around a planet. Such a black hole could power an entire planet indefinitely if fed with a small amount of matter on a regular basis – about 2.2 kilograms per year. Without the feed, the black hole would disappear due to Hawking radiation.

Professor Loeb notes that such a system would be the most efficient source of energy, converting mass into energy with a perfect efficiency of 100%. The only other way to achieve such efficiency is through the annihilation of matter and antimatter. Additionally, a black hole could use any form of matter as fuel, including waste, which would solve the waste problem for an advanced civilization while providing an inexhaustible supply of energy.

Humanity produces about 1.92 billion tons of waste each year, which has a negative impact on the environment. This amount of waste would be enough to fuel a black hole with a mass of 100,000 tons for over 437 million years.

Loeb added that to create a compact black hole, matter would need to be compressed to a density 600 times greater than that of iron. The creation of such controlled black holes could be within the reach of civilizations at the next stage of technological development.