A rotating black hole is described by the Kerr metric, the exact vacuum solution of the Einstein field equations Gμν = 8πTμν for a mass M spinning with angular momentum J = aM (geometric units G = c = M = 1). Two closed-form radii bound it in the equatorial plane:
r₊ = 1 + √(1 − a²) event horizon
r_ergo(θ) = 1 + √(1 − a²cos²θ) ergosphere boundary
The ergosphere is an oblate surface that touches the horizon at the poles but bulges outside it at the equator. Inside it, spacetime itself is dragged around the hole so strongly that no observer can stay at fixed φ — everything must co-rotate. This is frame-dragging (Lense–Thirring effect), confirmed for Earth's much weaker field by Gravity Probe B.
The lit particles follow the exact Kerr formula for the angular velocity of a circular equatorial orbit (Bardeen, Press & Teukolsky 1972):
Ω = ±1 / (r^1.5 ± a) (+ prograde, − retrograde)
Notice Ω does not depend only on r as in Newtonian gravity — the ± a term is frame-dragging directly changing the orbital rate. The innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) and photon-sphere radii shown above use the exact Bardeen and Chandrasekhar closed-form expressions and shrink for prograde orbits (co-rotating with the hole) and grow for retrograde ones as spin increases — matter can orbit much closer to a fast-spinning Kerr hole than to a non-spinning Schwarzschild one (r = 6M / 3M).
- Spin slider — increases a/M; watch the ergosphere (translucent orange) separate from the horizon (black sphere) and the ISCO/photon-sphere rings move.
- + Prograde / + Retrograde — drops a test particle at the chosen radius, moving at the exact Kerr Ω(r,a) for that direction.