Warm Hole

Warm Hole
Wormhole lets you share files with end-to-end encryption and a link that automatically expires. So you can keep what you share private and make sure your stuff doesn't stay online forever.

(opens in new tab)

(opens in new tab)

(opens in new tab)

(opens in new tab)

Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands

Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors

The ultimate action-packed science and technology magazine bursting with exciting information about the universe
More stories to check out before you go
Live Science is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s why you can trust us .
These weird tunnels through space-time are still hypothetical.
A wormhole is a special solution to the equations describing Einstein's theory of general relativity that connects two distant points in space or time via a tunnel. Ideally, the length of this tunnel is shorter than the distance between those two points, making the wormhole a kind of shortcut. Though they are a staple of science fiction and have captured the popular imagination, wormholes are, as far as we know, only hypothetical. They are legitimate solutions to general relativity, but scientists have never figured out a way to maintain a stable wormhole in the real universe.
The simplest possible wormhole solution was discovered by Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen in 1935, which is why wormholes are sometimes called "Einstein-Rosen bridges." Einstein and Rosen started with the mathematical solution of a black hole , which consists of a singularity (a point of infinite density) and an event horizon (a region surrounding that singularity beyond which nothing can escape). According to The Physics of the Universe , they found that they could extend this solution to include the polar opposite of black holes: white holes.
These hypothetical white holes also contain a singularity, but they operate in reverse to a black hole: Nothing can enter the event horizon of a white hole, and any material inside the white hole gets ejected immediately.
Einstein and Rosen found that, theoretically, every black hole is paired with a white hole. Because the two holes would exist in separate places in space, a tunnel — a wormhole — would bridge the two ends.
However, a wormhole created from a pair of black and white holes wouldn't be very useful. For one, white holes would be unstable. If you were to drop a particle toward the event horizon of a white hole, the particle would never reach the event horizon, because nothing can enter a white hole. So the energy of the system would continue to increase to infinity, eventually blowing up the white hole, according to the University of Colorado physicist Andrew Hamilton (opens in new tab) .
Second, even if white holes could exist, the only way to enter this kind of wormhole would be to cross the event horizon of the black hole on the other side. But once an object crossed the event horizon, it could never leave. So objects could enter the wormhole but never escape.
Lastly, the wormholes themselves would be unstable. A single photon, or particle of light, passing through the wormhole tunnel would introduce so much energy to the system that the tunnel would snap apart, destroying the wormhole, according to the European Southern Observatory (opens in new tab) .
In the 1970s, however, physicists worked out the math needed to make a stable, or "traversable," wormhole, according to University of California, Santa Barbara physicist Diandian Wang (opens in new tab) . The trick is to move the entrance of the wormhole tunnel beyond the event horizon of the black hole and to stabilize the tunnel itself so that matter passing through doesn't cause immediate catastrophic collapse.
The key ingredient for stabilizing wormholes is so-called exotic matter, or some form of matter that has negative mass. Unfortunately for such wormholes, scientists have never found evidence for negative mass, and it would violate conservation of momentum , which states that the momentum should remain constant if no force is applied; a negative-mass object placed next to a positive-mass object would immediately accelerate, with no source of energy.
If such a wormhole did exist, it would look very strange. The entrance would be a sphere, like the surface of a planet. If you looked into it, you would see light coming in from the other side. The wormhole tunnel could be any length, and while traveling down the tunnel, you would see distorted views of the region of the universe you came from and the region you were traveling to.
In theory, a wormhole could also act as a time machine. Special relativity dictates that moving clocks run slowly. In other words, someone racing around at nearly the speed of light would not advance into their own future as quickly as someone standing still.
If scientists could somehow construct a wormhole, initially the two ends would be synchronized in time. But if one end were then accelerated to nearly the speed of light, that end would start to lag behind the other end. The two entrances could then be brought together, but then one of the entrances would be in the past of the other, according to MIT physicist Andrew Friedman (opens in new tab) .
To travel back in time, you'd simply walk through one end. When you exited the wormhole, you would be in your own past.
There is currently no known way to construct a wormhole, and wormholes are purely hypothetical. Although exotic matter is unlikely to exist, there may be another way to stabilize wormholes: negative energy.
The vacuum of space-time is filled with quantum fields, the fundamental quantum building blocks that give rise to the forces and particles that we experience, and these quantum fields have an intrinsic amount of energy. It's possible to construct scenarios in which the quantum energy in a particular region is lower than its surroundings, making that energy negative at a local level. Such negative energy exists in the real world in the form of the Casimir effect, in which the negative quantum energies between two parallel metal plates cause the plates to attract, according to University of California, Riverside mathematician John Baez (opens in new tab) .
But no one knows if this negative quantum energy can be used to stabilize a wormhole. It may not even be the "right" kind of negative energy, since it's only negative relative to its surroundings, not in an absolute way.
Wormholes might occur naturally at microscopic scales in the quantum foam , the roiling nature of space-time at the very tiniest of scales due to those same quantum energies. In that case, wormholes might be popping in and out of existence constantly. But again, it's not clear how to "scale up" those wormholes to sizes big enough for you to walk through, and keep them stable.
Paul M. Sutter is a research professor in astrophysics at SUNY Stony Brook University and the Flatiron Institute in New York City. He regularly appears on TV and podcasts, including "Ask a Spaceman." He is the author of two books, "Your Place in the Universe" and "How to Die in Space," and is a regular contributor to Space.com, Live Science, and more. Paul received his PhD in Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2011, and spent three years at the Paris Institute of Astrophysics, followed by a research fellowship in Trieste, Italy.
First Martian life likely broke the planet with climate change, made themselves extinct
NASA's asteroid-deflection mission is a smashing success, shortens space rock's orbit by a stunning 32 minutes
Astronomers develop 'early warning system' to watch supernova explosions tear through the cosmos in real time
Stay up to date on the latest science news by signing up for our Essentials newsletter.
Thank you for signing up to Live Science. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
Live Science is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab) .
©
Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street,
New York,
NY 10036.

(opens in new tab)

(opens in new tab)

(opens in new tab)

(opens in new tab)

Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands

Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors

The ultimate action-packed science and technology magazine bursting with exciting information about the universe
More stories to check out before you go
Live Science is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s why you can trust us .
These weird tunnels through space-time are still hypothetical.
A wormhole is a special solution to the equations describing Einstein's theory of general relativity that connects two distant points in space or time via a tunnel. Ideally, the length of this tunnel is shorter than the distance between those two points, making the wormhole a kind of shortcut. Though they are a staple of science fiction and have captured the popular imagination, wormholes are, as far as we know, only hypothetical. They are legitimate solutions to general relativity, but scientists have never figured out a way to maintain a stable wormhole in the real universe.
The simplest possible wormhole solution was discovered by Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen in 1935, which is why wormholes are sometimes called "Einstein-Rosen bridges." Einstein and Rosen started with the mathematical solution of a black hole , which consists of a singularity (a point of infinite density) and an event horizon (a region surrounding that singularity beyond which nothing can escape). According to The Physics of the Universe , they found that they could extend this solution to include the polar opposite of black holes: white holes.
These hypothetical white holes also contain a singularity, but they operate in reverse to a black hole: Nothing can enter the event horizon of a white hole, and any material inside the white hole gets ejected immediately.
Einstein and Rosen found that, theoretically, every black hole is paired with a white hole. Because the two holes would exist in separate places in space, a tunnel — a wormhole — would bridge the two ends.
However, a wormhole created from a pair of black and white holes wouldn't be very useful. For one, white holes would be unstable. If you were to drop a particle toward the event horizon of a white hole, the particle would never reach the event horizon, because nothing can enter a white hole. So the energy of the system would continue to increase to infinity, eventually blowing up the white hole, according to the University of Colorado physicist Andrew Hamilton (opens in new tab) .
Second, even if white holes could exist, the only way to enter this kind of wormhole would be to cross the event horizon of the black hole on the other side. But once an object crossed the event horizon, it could never leave. So objects could enter the wormhole but never escape.
Lastly, the wormholes themselves would be unstable. A single photon, or particle of light, passing through the wormhole tunnel would introduce so much energy to the system that the tunnel would snap apart, destroying the wormhole, according to the European Southern Observatory (opens in new tab) .
In the 1970s, however, physicists worked out the math needed to make a stable, or "traversable," wormhole, according to University of California, Santa Barbara physicist Diandian Wang (opens in new tab) . The trick is to move the entrance of the wormhole tunnel beyond the event horizon of the black hole and to stabilize the tunnel itself so that matter passing through doesn't cause immediate catastrophic collapse.
The key ingredient for stabilizing wormholes is so-called exotic matter, or some form of matter that has negative mass. Unfortunately for such wormholes, scientists have never found evidence for negative mass, and it would violate conservation of momentum , which states that the momentum should remain constant if no force is applied; a negative-mass object placed next to a positive-mass object would immediately accelerate, with no source of energy.
If such a wormhole did exist, it would look very strange. The entrance would be a sphere, like the surface of a planet. If you looked into it, you would see light coming in from the other side. The wormhole tunnel could be any length, and while traveling down the tunnel, you would see distorted views of the region of the universe you came from and the region you were traveling to.
In theory, a wormhole could also act as a time machine. Special relativity dictates that moving clocks run slowly. In other words, someone racing around at nearly the speed of light would not advance into their own future as quickly as someone standing still.
If scientists could somehow construct a wormhole, initially the two ends would be synchronized in time. But if one end were then accelerated to nearly the speed of light, that end would start to lag behind the other end. The two entrances could then be brought together, but then one of the entrances would be in the past of the other, according to MIT physicist Andrew Friedman (opens in new tab) .
To travel back in time, you'd simply walk through one end. When you exited the wormhole, you would be in your own past.
There is currently no known way to construct a wormhole, and wormholes are purely hypothetical. Although exotic matter is unlikely to exist, there may be another way to stabilize wormholes: negative energy.
The vacuum of space-time is filled with quantum fields, the fundamental quantum building blocks that give rise to the forces and particles that we experience, and these quantum fields have an intrinsic amount of energy. It's possible to construct scenarios in which the quantum energy in a particular region is lower than its surroundings, making that energy negative at a local level. Such negative energy exists in the real world in the form of the Casimir effect, in which the negative quantum energies between two parallel metal plates cause the plates to attract, according to University of California, Riverside mathematician John Baez (opens in new tab) .
But no one knows if this negative quantum energy can be used to stabilize a wormhole. It may not even be the "right" kind of negative energy, since it's only negative relative to its surroundings, not in an absolute way.
Wormholes might occur naturally at microscopic scales in the quantum foam , the roiling nature of space-time at the very tiniest of scales due to those same quantum energies. In that case, wormholes might be popping in and out of existence constantly. But again, it's not clear how to "scale up" those wormholes to sizes big enough for you to walk through, and keep them stable.
Paul M. Sutter is a research professor in astrophysics at SUNY Stony Brook University and the Flatiron Institute in New York City. He regularly appears on TV and podcasts, including "Ask a Spaceman." He is the author of two books, "Your Place in the Universe" and "How to Die in Space," and is a regular contributor to Space.com, Live Science, and more. Paul received his PhD in Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2011, and spent three years at the Paris Institute of Astrophysics, followed by a research fellowship in Trieste, Italy.
First Martian life likely broke the planet with climate change, made themselves extinct
NASA's asteroid-deflection mission is a smashing success, shortens space rock's orbit by a stunning 32 minutes
Astronomers develop 'early warning system' to watch supernova explosions tear through the cosmos in real time
Stay up to date on the latest science news by signing up for our Essentials newsletter.
Thank you for signing up to Live Science. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
Live Science is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab) .
©
Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street,
New York,
NY 10036.

Browse

Search

Entertainment & Pop Culture
Geography & Travel
Health & Medicine
Lifestyles & Social Issues
Literature
Philosophy & Religion
Politics, Law & Government
Science
Sports & Recreation
Technology
Visual Arts
World History

On This Day in History
Quizzes
Podcasts
Dictionary
Biographies
Summaries
Top Questions
Week In Review
Infographics
Demystified
Lists
#WTFact
Companions
Image Galleries
Spotlight
The Forum
One Good Fact

Entertainment & Pop Culture
Geography & Travel
Health & Medicine
Lifestyles & Social Issues
Literature
Philosophy & Religion
Politics, Law & Government
Science
Sports & Recreation
Technology
Visual Arts
World History

Britannica Classics Check out these retro videos from Encyclopedia Britannica’s archives.
Britannica Explains In these videos, Britannica explains a variety of topics and answers frequently asked questions.
Demystified Videos In Demystified, Britannica has all the answers to your burning questions.
#WTFact Videos In #WTFact Britannica shares some of the most bizarre facts we can find.
This Time in History In these videos, find out what happened this month (or any month!) in history.

Student Portal Britannica is the ultimate student resource for key school subjects like history, government, literature, and more.
COVID-19 Portal While this global health crisis continues to evolve, it can be useful to look to past pandemics to better understand how to respond today.
100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.
Britannica Beyond We’ve created a new place where questions are at the center of learning. Go ahead. Ask. We won’t mind.
Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century. Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them!
SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!

While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies.
Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.

Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).

Feedback Type

Select a type (Required)
Factual Correction
Spelling/Grammar Correction

Gag N Gape Porno
Double Gagging
Gagging Ru

Warm Hole

Report Page