Can We Steal Energy from Black Holes? Part 1: Leveling Up Spacetime

An illustration of spacetime as a warped grid around the Earth, the picture at the heart of general relativity and frame dragging. Credit: NASA (public domain).

Roger Penrose found a way to extract energy from a spinning black hole without breaking any laws of physics. To understand it, we first have to level up our picture of spacetime, from Newton's empty stage to a swirling, draggable fabric.

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