A new study suggests that a black hole orbiting a planet could be an indicator of an advanced civilization

A new study suggests that a black hole orbiting a planet could indicate the presence of an advanced civilization. This idea builds on a 1971 proposal by Nobel laureate Roger Penrose, who theorized that energy could be extracted from a rotating black hole by harnessing its accretion disk. Over time, researchers have proposed that this method, known as the Penrose Process, could be utilized by advanced civilizations to power their societies. One such example is John M. Smart’s Transcension Hypothesis, which posits that advanced intelligences might relocate to regions near black holes to exploit their energy. In a recent paper, Harvard Professor Avi Loeb introduced the concept of a "Black Hole Moon," suggesting that the unique way a black hole could illuminate its orbiting planet might serve as a technosignature, detectable in future SETI efforts.