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EXPLORE FURTHER: Researchers STUMPED After Detecting an Isolated Black Hole
From Interstellar to
Star Wars
Science fiction is brimming with tales exploring ways humanity could traverse the cosmos to reach far-off planets.
However, even with our most sophisticated contemporary rockets, journeying to the boundaries of our solar system remains challenging.
solar system
could span the majority of a human lifespan.
Nevertheless, experts suggest that there might be a method for humans to traverse millions of light years within mere seconds.
Through traversing wormholes within the very structure of spacetime, we could potentially journey to even the farthest stars effortlessly.
Similar to a black hole, a wormhole forms when gravity becomes so intense that it distorts the very fabric of space-time.
Einstein’s ideas regarding the cosmos suggest that spacetime has the potential to curve, forming what we call a ‘wormhole’—a tunnel connecting distinct locations within the fabric of space-time itself.
Professor Dejan Stojkovic, a cosmologist from the University at Buffalo, informed MailOnline: "In theory, there is no restriction on how far we could journey using this method."
'Two distant points could be billions of light years away along the regular space, and only a few seconds away along the wormhole.'
What are wormholes?
Dr Andreea Font, a theoretical astrophysicist at Liverpool John Moores University, explained to MailOnline: "Wormholes act as ‘shortcuts’ through the very structure of spacetime itself, potentially allowing one to travel more directly between distant points within our cosmos."
According to Einstein, an object with mass warps the fabric of spacetime like a weight being dropped onto a rubber sheet. These curves are what create the force of gravity.
But Einstein's equations also have some extremely weird solutions when gravity starts to become extremely strong.
'For example, we know that black holes can bend the space around them under the influence of gravity,' says Dr Font.
'In principle, the geometry of space-time can be folded and bent in such a way that a tunnel
Can be formed between two distant supermassive black holes located in different regions of space.
The link between these far-off spots
This is what scientists refer to as a wormhole.
The point where the tunnel opens up into space is referred to as the mouth, whereas the tunnel itself is known as the throat.
A wormhole consists of two openings that might be located anywhere in the cosmos, connected by a passage known as the throat.
Could wormholes serve as a means for traveling through space?
According to Einstein, spacetime is not flat but is curved, wrinkled, and warped by gravitational forces.
Professor Stojkovic states that wormholes utilize these folds, essentially boring directly from one location to another.
Rather than embarking on a lengthy voyage across the undulating fabric of spacetime from one location to another, we can simply opt for the shorter path through the tunnel of the wormhole.
The distance between the openings in normal space isn't significant; through gravitational warping, they can essentially touch each other within the fabric of spacetime.
Theoretically, people could use this phenomenon to traverse vast distances within mere moments.
Professor Stojkovic states: "Should the wormhole’s opening be spacious enough for a spacecraft, then we could utilize the shortcut offered by the wormhole."
In what ways can humans journey across billions of light-years?
Despite moving at speeds close to that of light, far-off stars and galaxies could still require multiple human lifespans to arrive at.
If we want to get there faster, we could use galactic 'shortcuts' in the form of wormholes.
Wormholes are created when strong gravitational forces curve spacetime into a loop.
Where two 'sheets' of spacetime become stuck together, this forms a bridge known as a wormhole.
By passing through this wormhole, we might cover billions of light-years within mere moments.
Assuming there is a wormhole entrance at your departure location and another at your arrival point, you could traverse the cosmos in less time than it takes for light to get from one place to another.
How to construct a warp drive
Even though this idea sounds great in principle, the challenging aspect lies in maintaining a wormhole’s stability for a sufficient duration to allow safe passage.
Dr Font clarifies: "There are two types of wormholes; some can be crossed through, whereas others cannot."
'Those that can be navigated, where the route from one end to the other stays accessible, do not necessarily remain so for a sufficient duration to allow genuine passage.'
Due to the extreme gravitational effects inherent in bending spacetime,
Wormholes are extremely unstable, and the passage tends to close up on itself.
In order to overcome this limitation with any potential 'warp drive' technology in the future, there needs to be a method capable of keeping the wormholes open wide enough for traversal over an extended period.
Professor Stojkovic states: "In order to achieve stability, one must oppose the gravitational pull and stop the wormhole walls from collapsing."
'To achieve this, we must have access to substantial quantities of negative energy or an alternative configuration capable of generating a repulsive force to keep the wormhole stable.'
In the field of physics, 'negative energy' refers to a situation where an area of space contains less energy than what surrounds this emptiness within space itself.
Even though this might sound like a concept from science fiction, negative energy emerges as a result of quantum physics principles, and researchers have succeeded in generating minute quantities under lab settings.
Nevertheless, the quantity of negative energy needed to stabilize a traversable wormhole greatly surpasses what humans can generate at this point.
Professor Stojkovic states: "At present, we possess these abilities. However, this doesn’t rule out the possibility that we might not have them in the far-off future, or that an extraterrestrial civilisation may currently wield them."
In conclusion, human construction capabilities barely measure up to those of nature. Thus, naturally occurring wormholes might already be out there, and we could potentially utilize them in the future.
Are wormholes real?
Nevertheless, if our aim is to construct a warp drive using naturally occurring wormholes, we could face quite a significant challenge.
Although wormholes are considered a theoretical possibility, researchers currently lack any concrete evidence of their existence.
It could be due to the fact that wormholes are incredibly hard to spot, or simply because they do not exist within our cosmos.
Given their inherent instability, some researchers believe that wormholes might not actually occur in nature.
This has prompted certain scientists to propose that wormholes could simply be an advantageous theoretical concept designed to aid in understanding Einstein's equations.
Nevertheless, scientists are currently crafting the means to detect wormholes should they exist, and Professor Stojkovic remains hopeful that proof of their existence will surface one day.
The construction capability of nature vastly surpasses that of humans, and it invariably manages to create structures explained by valid theories such as General Relativity.
The Schwarzschild solution explaining black holes was discovered in 1916, yet prominent scientists over the following five decades steadfastly declined to accept that such bizarre phenomena could exist in reality.
'Nowadays, black holes seem to be ubiquitous throughout the cosmos. I anticipate that a similar phenomenon will occur with wormholes.'
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