Just WHAT IS the maximum rate a black hole can spin?

Question

It's all over the news a black hole is spinning at 84% of the maximum rate that it can spin. But just how fast is that? 70 miles an hour? tha the maximum interstate speed. OK I'm being facetious but come on if you are educating the public, not many of us know what the theoretical maximum is or in what units. So we need some one like Carl Sagen to dumb it down for us. Maybe someone could give us the maximum in like revolution per microsecond or something.
Thanks,
Paul

meanolmaw · Accepted Answer

read here.....

http://news.msn.com/science-technology/black-holes-in-the-center-of-galaxies-rotate-fast-study-finds

670 million mph.... wow!....but that's not a maximum.....

Paula · Answer

A star remnant collapses to point size.
Presumably it "conserves" its angular momentum.

The theoretical maximum rate of spin is the speed of light. That's the case for a rotating object that shrinks to point size.

Of course we can never observe a black hole --- the best we could hope for is to observe an event horizon --- where infalling material has been accelerated to the speed of light.

Inside the event horizon, all bets are off so to speak.
Infalling material will be getting closer to the gravity anomaly (infinite gravity) thus presumably it will continue accelerating until it finally reaches the black hole itself.

Nomadd · Answer

Try about 600 million miles an hour. The speed of the event horizon at the equator can reach close to the speed of light.

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Just WHAT IS the maximum rate a black hole can spin?

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