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this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023
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For one thing, the size and shape of the event horizon change depending on the black hole’s spin.
What would happen if one were to stop spinning? Could one even stop spinning?
Yes—it’s called the Penrose process.
I see. Thank you. So, you can use light to infer the mass, and then the volume information to infer the spin? Easy enough.
That would be a general method, if we were close enough to observe the shape of the event horizon (which we aren’t).
The article is describing another way, which only works in this case because the black hole is precessing so extremely that the changing axis of rotation is frame-dragging the polar jets along with it.