The Black Hole Made of Light
And the concept of a kugelblitz drive
There is a certain irony to the idea of a kugelblitz. The mysterious, foreign word refers to a black hole made by a seemingly self-defeating process. Reams of light in the form of energetic gamma-rays are concentrated in a space smaller than a proton. The heavy concentration of radiation has the same effect as a heavy concentration of matter. That is, it results in an incredible density and gravitational pull, or what we know as a black hole. But it’s a black hole made from light — a creation that devours its creator.
This kind of black hole is theoretically possible because of the relationship between energy and mass. In simple terms they can be thought of as being interchangeable, and gravity itself doesn’t distinguish between the two. This famous relationship is memorialized in e=mc² which shows how energy is stored in mass. If a traditional black hole is nothing more than enough matter from a star collapse crowded into a very small area of space, there is no reason why energy — the equivalent of mass — would not result in the same swirling, spherical body of a black hole. Even the smallest black hole would encapsulate a bounty of energy. Perhaps enough to power the starships of the future in their voyages through alien systems and alien stars.
