Do black holes rotate?

Even the tiniest amount of rotational motion can have an astronomical effect on the movement of celestial bodies.


Asked by: Joe Stoloff, Rochdale

Yes. All astronomical objects, including black holes, are formed by gravity pulling matter together. If a cosmic body originates from anything that had even the tiniest amount of rotational motion originally, then this spin rate will become greatly enhanced as the object collapses.

In a turbulent and angular momentum-rich Universe like ours, this means everything from dust particles to black holes will have some degree of rotation. Certain objects have observed properties that seem to be a direct result of the rotation of black holes.

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