Just like the elusive loch ness monster, a
white hole is an interesting idea that has
not yet been proved to be real, but there's
no good reason why it couldn't be real.
You see, white holes are highly speculative
tales, told by astronomers to potentially
explain what's on the other side of a black
hole.
So what exactly is a white hole, and do they
really exist?
Let's find out...
A white hole is the exact opposite of a black
hole.
A black hole sucks in matter and no matter
can escape it.
Whereas a white hole spews out matter but
matter cannot enter it, kind of like a teenager’s
bedroom.
Most physicists say that white holes are extremely
unlikely to be real and their existence is,
in fact, impossible.
But new evidence suggests otherwise.
Since the two are so intrinsically linked,
to fully understand what a white hole is,
we first need to have a little chat about
black holes.
A black hole is formed when a massive star
runs out of fuel to carry on the process of
nuclear fusion and so it collapses in on itself.
This is known as a supernova.
Then, its gravitational pull gets stronger
and stronger, causing the collapsed star to
collapse further and further in on itself
into a single point.
Eventually it reaches a point of infinite
density known as a gravitational singularity.
The gravitational pull of a singularity is
so powerful that nothing can escape it, not
even light.
And so we have a black hole.
A black hole is completely non-visible, because
once light enters the singularity's event
horizon it can't escape it's gravitational
pull, so the light never returns to our eyeballs.
But that's about all scientists truly know
about black holes.
Okay they do know a little bit more than that,
I am generalising.
Sorry Steve!
But my point is that we have only scratched
the surface of what a black hole really is
and how it behaves.
And don't even get me started on what happens
when you enter a black hole, and more importantly
what's on the other side of it, literally
no one knows that, seriously.
There are countless theories out there of
course.
Some theorise that black holes are portals
to a parallel universe.
Others say they lead to wormholes that would
theoretically allow us to traverse massive
distances in space, faster than the speed
of light.
But for a long time the most universally accepted
theory has been that whatever enters a black
hole is trapped there for eternity, like placing
something inside a locked room, then destroying
the key.
Scientists have a special name for anything
and everything that is sucked up by a black
hole, from stars to radio waves, photons of
light and even entire solar systems.
Scientists simply call it "information".
For decades many scientists believed that
when information is claimed by a black hole
it is lost forever.
But there's an alternative theory, which is
backed up by brand new evidence that suggests
this information could possibly be recovered.
This is where white holes come in.
You see there's a fundamental problem with
suggesting that all information that enters
a black hole is lost forever.
Both Albert Einstein and Issac Newton said
"matter cannot be created or destroyed" it
can only change into other forms.
That's fine if the black hole functions as
a locked room, trapping the information for
eternity.
Because nothing has been destroyed.
However in 1975 Stephen Hawking came up with
the widely accepted idea of Hawking Radiation.
Which states that black holes actually radiate
energy and even more incredibly he demonstrated
how black holes actually evaporate over time.
They're not permanent residents of space like
we previously thought.
So when a black hole evaporates, what happens
to all the matter that it has sucked up?
Hawking Radiation appears to contradict the
idea that matter can't be destroyed.
There has been a ravenous debate raging on
in the physics community about this, ever
since Stephen Hawking's revelation.
You know how feisty those physicists can get.
A possible answer to this dilemma is that
black holes can actually turn into so-called
white holes.
When this happens the newly born white hole
spews out all the information it sucked up
during its previous life as a black hole.
Like opening a can of miscellaneous space
crap and shaking it all over the damn place.
If this theory is true then it once and for
all settles the debate over hawking radiation
and the loss of matter inside black holes.
Because it means the matter isn't actually
lost when the black hole evaporates, it is
instead recovered, albeit in considerably
worse shape than when it entered.
Some people have even taken the idea of white
holes one step further by theorising that
black holes are actually joined to white holes
via a wormhole.
Which is a shortcut through space and if we
were to enter a black hole, we could travel
huge distances through space at a rate considerably
faster than the speed of light.
Not by actually traveling faster than the
speed of light, according to Einstein's Theory
of Special Relativity, that's impossible.
But by simply taking a shortcut through the
universe, by modifying the shape of the spacetime
continuum.
There's all kinds of extreme theories out
there; often borrowed from science fiction.
Which state that these passages through spacetime
would allow us to travel through time.
But that's mostly just speculation.
The general idea of the white hole/wormhole
theory is that anything which enters a black
holes takes a quick stroll through the back
alleys of the universe before being ejected
violently out of a white hole somewhere else
in space, or possibly in another universe
altogether.
Some people even say that the big bang itself
was a white hole.
Which came into existence as a result of a
black hole forming in another universe and
expanding outwards into a brand new universe.
There's been a lot of research into this theory
and it's not totally implausible.
If it were to prove true it would mean that
our entire universe and everything we know,
is inside a black hole, which is part of a
much, much larger, parent universe.
That's right, you could be living inside a
black hole.
Whatever you may have heard or believe about
white holes, there's no doubt that if they
do exist, they offer some incredibly exciting
possibilities.
Which leaves the obvious question do they
exist?
For a long time the existence of white holes
has been vehemently opposed by many figures
within the scientific community.
Recently however, that all changed.
Observatories both here on Earth and in space
are constantly monitoring for strange things
hitting us from far away in space, such as
radio waves or gamma rays.
In 2006 a gamma ray burst was observed that
didn't fit with the traditional parameters
under which gamma rays behave.
It had an extraordinarily long duration of
102 seconds, which means it had to have come
form a supernova explosion.
But there are no known supernovae that it
could have come from.
The scientists who discovered the gamma ray
burst actually said "this is brand new territory;
we have no theories to guide us."
So they basically said we have no idea what
the hell that was, let's put it in a box somewhere
and forget about it.
Which they pretty much did.
But, five years later it has been suggested
that the gamma ray burst in 2006 of unknown
origin could have actually come from a white
hole popping into existence for 102 seconds,
spewing out a whole load of matter, then disappearing.
The features of the gamma ray burst perfectly
align with what we know about white holes
and how they behave.
This explanation to this unusual gamma ray
event has not been accepted by everyone but
it's the strongest evidence we have ever found
that supports the existence of the mysterious,
interstellar, loch ness monsters that are
white holes.
