Speculative Fact #151: A Home Inside a Black Hole

When most of us think of black holes, we think of a scary place where gravity is so intense that not even light can escape it. Hence the name…black hole.

According to Vyacheslav Dokuchaev (at the Institute for Nuclear Research at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow) it is possible for particles and even planets to orbit inside a singularity without ever getting sucked in.

So, what’s the trick? For one, it has to be a certain kind of black hole (charged, rotating). As objects enter such black holes they can eventually reach an area called the Cauchy horizon, where they can enter a safe and stable orbit. There would still be tidal forces and intense radiation, but those might be minor obstacles for a sufficiently advanced civilization.

            A hypothetical planet inside such a black hole, immune to detection by cosmic snoopers (like us via the SETI project). What would life be like on a planet inside a black hole? Has a civilization set up shop in there to hide from something (or someone)? From what?

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