. | . |
What are wormholes? An astrophysicist explains these shortcuts through space-time by Dejan Stojkovic | Professor of Physics, University at Buffalo Buffalo NY (SPX) Aug 24, 2022
Imagine two towns on two opposite sides of a mountain. People from these towns would probably have to travel all the way around the mountain to visit one another. But, if they wanted to get there faster, they could dig a tunnel straight through the mountain to create a shortcut. That's the idea behind a wormhole. A wormhole is like a tunnel between two distant points in our universe that cuts the travel time from one point to the other. Instead of traveling for many millions of years from one galaxy to another, under the right conditions one could theoretically use a wormhole to cut the travel time down to hours or minutes. Because wormholes represent shortcuts through space-time, they could even act like time machines. You might emerge from one end of a wormhole at a time earlier than when you entered its other end. While scientists have no evidence that wormholes actually exist in our world, they're good tools to help astrophysicists like me think about space and time. They may also answer age-old questions about what the universe looks like.
Fact or fiction? While researchers have never found a wormhole in our universe, scientists often see wormholes described in the solutions to important physics equations. Most prominently, the solutions to the equations behind Einstein's theory of space-time and general relativity include wormholes. This theory describes the shape of the universe and how stars, planets and other objects move throughout it. Because Einstein's theory has been tested many, many times and found to be correct every time, some scientists do expect wormholes to exist somewhere out in the universe. But, other scientists think wormholes can't possibly exist because they would be too unstable. The constant pull of gravity affects every object in the universe, including Earth. So gravity would have an effect on wormholes, too. The scientists who are skeptical about wormholes believe that after a short time the middle of the wormhole would collapse under its own gravity, unless it had some force pushing outward from inside the wormhole to counteract that force. The most likely way it would do that is using what's called "negative energies," which would oppose gravity and stabilize the wormhole. But as far as scientists know, negative energies can be created only in amounts much too small to counteract a wormhole's own gravity. It's possible that the Big Bang created teeny, tiny wormholes with small amounts of negative energies way back at the beginning of the universe, and over time these wormholes have stretched out as the universe has expanded.
Just like black holes? Einstein first formulated his famous field equations in 1915, and German scientist Karl Schwarzschild found a way to mathematically describe black holes after only one year. However, this description was so peculiar that the leading scientists of that era refused to believe that black holes could actually exist in nature. It took people 50 years to start taking black holes seriously - the term "black hole" wasn't even coined until 1967. The same could happen with wormholes. It may take scientists a little while to come up with a consensus about whether or not they can exist. But if they do find strong evidence pointing to the existence of wormholes - which they may be able to do by looking at odd movements in star orbits - the discovery will shape how scientists see and understand the universe.
Do 'bouncing universes' have a beginning? Buffalo NY (SPX) Aug 17, 2022 In trying to understand the nature of the cosmos, some theorists propose that the universe expands and contracts in endless cycles. Because this behavior is hypothesized to be perpetual, the universe should have no beginning and no end - only eternal cycles of growing and shrinking that extend forever into the future, and forever into the past. It's an appealing concept in part because it removes the need for a state called a singularity that corresponds to the "beginning of time" in other m ... read more
|
|
The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us. |