Life under a black sun
arXiv:1601.02897 · doi:10.1119/1.4966905
Abstract
Life is dependent on the income of energy with low entropy and the disposal of energy with high entropy. On Earth, the low-entropy energy is provided by solar radiation and the high-entropy energy is disposed as infrared radiation emitted into the cold space. Here we turn the situation around and assume cosmic background radiation as the low-entropy source of energy for a planet orbiting a black hole into which the high-entropy energy is disposed. We estimate the power that can be produced by thermodynamic processes on such a planet, with a particular interest in planets orbiting a fast rotating Kerr black hole as in the science fiction movie {\em Interstellar}. We also briefly discuss a reverse Dyson sphere absorbing cosmic background radiation from the outside and dumping waste energy to a black hole inside.
8 pages, 6 figures. Replaced with the version published in Am. J. Phys
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- A Dyson Sphere around a black hole
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- Interstellar communication network. I. Overview and assumptions
- Habitable zones around almost extremely spinning black holes (black sun revisited)
- Type III Societies (Apparently) Do Not Exist
- General-relativistic thin-shell Dyson mega-spheres
- That is not dead which can eternal lie: the aestivation hypothesis for resolving Fermi's paradox
- What Would Happen If We Were About 1 pc Away from a Supermassive Black Hole?
- Life Versus Dark Energy: How An Advanced Civilization Could Resist the Accelerating Expansion of the Universe
- How bright was the Big Bang?
- Visible shapes of black holes M87* and SgrA*
- Shadows of Giants: Constraints on Stupendously Large Black Holes from Negative Sources against the Cosmic Microwave Background