What if Black Holes are Wormholes?
Is anything as simultaneously terrifying and
exciting as a black hole?
Probably not.
These enormous celestial structures devour
anything unlucky enough to cross their path.
But what if there was even more to their mystique?
This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering
the extraordinary question; What if black
holes are wormholes?
Are you a fiend for facts?
Are you constantly curious?
Then why not subscribe to Unveiled for more
clips like this one?
And ring the bell for more fascinating content!
Black holes form when exceptionally massive
stars die.
When such a star collapses, it condenses into
a point of infinite density and mass – a
singularity – capable of bending spacetime
around it, according to the theory of general
relativity.
The mass now inside the black hole is so strong
that its escape velocity equals or exceeds
the speed of light, meaning that nothing - not
even light - can escape it.
For many years, we believed that black holes
existed, but they weren’t conclusively proven
until the 1960s, and it wasn’t until 2019
that we were first able to photograph one.
Despite that significant step, they remain
incredibly mysterious and almost impossible
to study.
We’re especially unsure on what ultimately
happens to any mass they absorb.
If a human were to fall into a black hole,
most physicists agree that they’d die; “spaghettified”
as gravity stretches their mass out into one
long string of atoms.
But what happens to those atoms that once
made up your body?
Or to any other piece of intergalactic debris
that black holes consume?
This is called the Black Hole Information
Paradox: If information can’t be created
or destroyed, then what happens to matter
inside a black hole is one of science’s
greatest mysteries.
If black holes were wormholes, though, it’d
instantly solve this problem - because that
matter would have somewhere to go.
Crucially, wormholes aren’t proven to exist.
But they have been mathematically predicted
by the theory of relativity, and they are
seen as being scientifically possible.
A wormhole is a hypothetical structure that
bends spacetime so much that travelling through
it allows you to go from one point in spacetime
to another - much faster than you ever could
by travelling between the two spots directly.
Also called Einstein-Rosen Bridges, they’re
usually characterised as intergalactic shortcuts
to zap you from A to B - and are capable of
disrupting time as well.
It surprisingly isn’t an impossible leap
to say that black holes and wormholes could
be one and the same thing - given how little
we know about black holes.
Failing that, though, wormholes could also
be half black hole and half white hole.
A white hole is the hypothetical opposite
of a black hole; a portal in spacetime where
matter is ejected but nothing can enter.
If a bridge between a black and white hole
could exist, so that matter at the singularity
is spat back out again via the white hole,
then this bridge could be reasonably described
as “a wormhole”.
So, while on one hand wormholes might not
even exist, on the other it’s arguably possible
that black holes - or some black holes - actually
could be wormholes, and such a discovery will
be made at some point in the future.
It actually wouldn’t disagree all that much
with the laws of physics…
Although it’s still very much a theory only,
at this point.
But, let’s imagine that there’s no question
about it….
Black holes are wormholes.
And it’s theoretically possible to both
travel to them and through them (and live
to tell the tale).
What would the immediate problems be?
Would they really be a viable means of transport?
And how would they change our world?
Using wormholes to jump across space definitely
sounds cool, but we’d quickly discover some
sizeable issues.
First, we’d need a way to find out where
any confirmed wormhole exits before stepping
into it…
Otherwise we’d be sending a probe or even
a crew of astronauts into the greatest unknown
imaginable, without any indication of where
they could end up.
No doubt some would be willing to take the
chance for the sake of science and discovery…
but being stranded in deep space, potentially
millions of lightyears away from anything
recognisable, with no chance of return is
the ultimate in nightmare scenarios.
It’s also possible that wormholes aren’t
even shortcuts at all.
Some speculate that the route through a wormhole
could in fact twist and turn so much that
it’d be better to avoid it completely.
Despite what sci-fi suggests, even the unlikeliest
of hypothetical wormholes aren’t instantaneous
leaps through spacetime, as anything entering
into them still has a certain distance to
navigate.
By all accounts, sending people through black
hole wormholes - even if we somehow knew that
they’d be able to physically survive the
journey itself - would amount to a reckless
and blatant disregard for human life.
But still, the biggest issue with traversable
wormholes would be their instability.
Even were it theoretically possible to travel
through one and survive, it’s thought that
the structure itself would most likely collapse
around you before you could complete the trip.
There are theories on how to prevent this,
most of which require the use of “exotic”
- or non-baryonic - matter, to in some way
line the outside of the wormhole and stop
it from breaking apart.
Currently, we can’t actually produce such
matter, but in a world where black holes really
are wormholes it’d be a vital resource - with
whole industries set up to create enough to
ensure that wormhole travel was as safe as
possible.
And that’s without the added, almost incalculable
threat of radiation exposure that wormhole
travel would bring, meaning we’d have to
see major advances in that field, too.
Once we find a way to work out the length
of a journey, its destination, and to avoid
wormholes simply disintegrating as soon as
we enter them, though… the applications
would clearly be incredible.
Whole galaxies could now be reachable.
Earth-like planets would be relatively simple
to visit, and ferrying people to and from
various points in the universe would suddenly
be achievable.
Should we discover multiple black hole wormholes,
then we’d soon be even more connected via
a vast, intergalactic web of trade routes
and outer space highways.
But of course, if black holes were wormholes,
and we could move between them, we could also
finally have found a feasible means of time
travel.
Science says that we can’t travel in time
because it’s impossible to exceed the speed
of light, but by travelling through a wormhole
we could potentially get from one point to
another faster than light without locally
exceeding it.
Voila, humanity could become a genuine race
of time travellers.
At this point, black hole wormhole travel
would surely need all manner of regulations
placed onto it.
The entry points and exit points of these
magnificent, mind-bending tunnels would become
busy, thriving space-ports, with sprawling
space cities popping up on nearby, alien planets,
as humanity stretches itself all across time,
the galaxy and the universe.
And, in doing so, we’d dramatically increase
our chances of solving the Fermi Paradox once
and for all, by actually encountering another
extra-terrestrial species - perhaps one that
has long known that black holes were wormholes,
and has been patiently waiting for us to cotton
on.
It’d change even the most fundamental aspects
of our lives, and of our concept of space
- turning the great unknown into the great
unexplored.
And that’s what would happen if black holes
are wormholes.
What do you think?
Is there anything we missed?
Let us know in the comments, check out these
other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you
subscribe and ring the bell for our latest
content.
